Most gracious God, by the calling of thy servant James Theodore Holly thou gavest us our first bishop of African-American heritage. In his quest for life and freedom, he led thy people from bondage into a new land and established the Church in Haiti. Grant that, inspired by his testimony, we may overcome our prejudice and honor those whom thou callest from every family, language, people, and nation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I write simply to say that I honor Bp. Holly’s memory and his courageous witness. I also find this collect symptomatic of the problem with most modern liturgical language, which doesn’t really address God but ourselves…in a preachy, clunky, and propagandistic manner. Collects should invite further investigation into the life of the person commemorated rather than provide polemic summaries of what interests our own era about the commemoration. “…the first bishop of African-American heritage…” and “we may overcome our prejudice and honor those whom thou callest….” These are homiletic elements jammed into a form of prayer that is addressed to God. Perhaps a better solution would be to pray that like JT Holly, first Bishop of Haiti, we may be given grace to overcome the trials and temptations of this sinful world and join him in proclaiming freedom to those in bondage, or something along these lines.
I know this seems small to many, but it is emblematic of the fundamental fact that if our prayer is directed to ourselves, it gets all the reward (and inspires all the devotion) it deserves.