Santa Barbara Rising--Opening Prayer for CLUE

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 Opening Prayer for CLUE-SB Board Meeting    



Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. 


Spirit of Life, Spirit of Justice,

we gather tonight on Chumash land,

remembering the first peoples of this place,

whose wisdom and struggle echo still in the barrios,

the fields, and the streets of Santa Barbara.


We meet in a city of palm trees and ocean views,

yet more than a thousand of our neighbors remain unhoused.

Homelessness is the moral crisis of our times—

exposed most starkly when the city moved to close the FARO Center,

not because it failed,

but because it dared to serve the poorest among us.


We see Eastside and Westside families displaced by gentrification,

their modest homes bulldozed for luxury condos

that only out-of-town investors can afford.

We see workers living in cars, waiting for Safe Parking spots

that are too few for the need.

We see neighbors trapped in the cruel revolving door—

from ER to jail cell to shelter and back again—

denied the sustained, integrated care

that could bring healing and dignity to their lives.


We remember those in our county jail,

held not because they are guilty of crimes

but because they are guilty of being poor.

We remember brown-skinned brothers and sisters

kidnapped by ICE from workplaces and cannabis farms in Carpinteria,

and the terror in the hearts of children

who wonder if mamá or papá will return tonight.


We turn our gaze to the wounded Earth.

The Sable Offshore company presses to reopen

the pipeline that caused the 2015 Refugio oil spill—

a scar still etched on our coast,

a reminder that fossil fuel profits

are valued more than clean water, sea life, and sacred land.


And we must name the powers that profit from this suffering:

the Trump administration and its allies,

who shred the safety net, cut food aid, enrich billionaires,

and stoke fear while working people carry the heaviest burdens.


Yet, Spirit of Courage, we are not broken.

Across this county and across this nation,

a rising movement of justice grows.

We hear it in the chants of students in Isla Vista,

in the organizing of farmworkers with CAUSE,

in the generosity of churches that open their lots for Safe Parking,

in neighbors feeding neighbors when food banks run thin.

From barrios to campuses to sanctuaries,

from pulpits to picket lines,

we are building a movement of faith, justice, and solidarity.


This is no time to be silent.

No time to wait for someone else to take to the streets.

This is the hour of action—

to stand together across faiths, across neighborhoods, across walls.


Spirit of Justice, bless our gathering tonight.

Make our words bold, our hearts tender, our vision clear.

For the struggle is holy.

The time is now.

And we are the ones who must rise.


So mote it be.

Blessed be.

And Amen.

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