06/17/2026
This morning Pastor Ashley shared the invocation at the City Council meeting.
Holy One,
Lover of this city and all who call it home,
we give you thanks for Chicago:
for the lake that steadies us,
for the trains that carry us,
for the people who show up for one another
again and again.
We give thanks for Rogers Park and Austin,
for Bronzeville and Pilsen,
for Hyde Park and Little Village,
for Albany Park and Englewood,
for Lakeview and Portage Park,
and for all neighborhoods in our city,
where people are caring for children,
checking in on elders, opening businesses,
sweeping sidewalks, sharing meals,
and building lives together.
As Juneteenth draws near,
we remember that freedom has too often arrived late.
We honor the generations of Black Americans whose
courage, faith, labor, and organizing
bent this nation and city’s arc toward justice, even when the journey was long and the cost was high.
And in this Pride Month,
we remember LGBTQ+ ancestors and elders
whose courage made room for others to breathe more freely:
those who marched,
those who told the truth,
those who chose love over fear,
and those whose names we will never know,
though we live in the shelter of what they gave.
Remind us, O God,
that the good of one is bound up in the good of all.
Bless those entrusted with the work of this Council.
Grant them wisdom when the path ahead is unclear,
courage when the right choice is costly, in
and humility to listen well.
Bless this city:
its beauty and its brokenness,
its laughter and its grief,
its ordinary, everyday holiness.
And when this meeting has ended,
send us back into the neighborhoods we love
to seek justice,
to cherish mercy,
and to walk humbly with one another and with you.
Amen.
