The Eucharistic Prayer for the Commemoration of The Martyrs of Uganda (June 3)

Better a day late than a dollar short--wait, I am more than a dollar short these days. Anyway, Uganda has been in the news lately, as its government seeks to officially persecute its GLBT citizens. It's not as though Uganda has been a safe place before. In 1886, the African nation of Uganda was ruled by a pedophile named Mwanga. When young Christians began to refuse his advances, he arranged for the murder of almost three dozen or so boys, mostly Roman Catholic and Anglican, by being burned alive. It is said that many of these martyrs went to their death singing the hymns of their faith, often even as the flames sought to engulf them as they were being burned at the stake alive. Less than a century later, another tyrant sought out those who opposed his rule and many Christians perished during the reign of Idi Amin Dada. Uganda is often considered the most Christianized nation on the continent.

P: It is truly right and a good and joyful thing
that we should at all times and in all places,
offer our thanks and praise to you,
Holy God through Christ our Lord.

You gave the martyrs the courage to lay down their lives in Christ’s service
and in faithful witness to your steadfast love.

And so with the Church on earth, with Charles Lwanga and all the martyrs of Uganda and all the hosts of heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
The Sanctus is said or sung.

P: You are indeed holy, O God,
and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
He is the Good Shepherd who willingly laid down his life for his sheep.

By the baptism of Jesus’ suffering, death,
and resurrection,
you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

On the night before he suffered death,
our Lord Jesus gathered his friends around
the table and as he took bread,
he offered thanks to you; breaking it, and
giving it to all of them, saying:
“Take and eat; this is my body, given for
you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”

After all of them had eaten,
he again took the cup and offered thanks to
you, and gave it for all to drink, saying:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness
of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.”

And so, in remembrance of these your
mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
C: Christ has died. Christ has risen.
Christ will come again.

P: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
As they are the body and blood of Christ for us,
so may we be for the world the body of Christ,
redeemed by his blood.

Inspire us to give our lives in service to you
even though it may not mean that we share in the
suffering of your holy martyrs.

By your Spirit bind us to Christ,
one to another,
together in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory and we
feast at the heavenly banquet.

Through your son Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in your holy church,
all honor and glory is yours, Almighty God,
now and forever.
C: Amen

P: And now, as God’s confident children,
we boldly pray:
C: Our Father in heaven...