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You don’t have to be Black or attend a predominantly Black church to celebrate Juneteenth with appreciation and respect. Many resources are available for your congregation to cosponsor or plan a God-honoring Juneteenth event or worship service.
became especially interested in exploring the faith history of Juneteenth when he learned that people also used to call it Jubilee Day. Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865, when the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to finally enforce freedom for enslaved people. Many of those Union troops were Black, and they landed in Galveston two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s went into effect January 1, 1863.
“I discovered that those newly free people in Texas recognized Juneteenth as a Jubilee Day, like the Leviticus 25 ‘Sabbath of Sabbaths,’” Berry says. “Their first Juneteenth Jubilee event was to march from the Galveston courthouse to a church to sing, pray, and praise the Lord for deliverance. That fact got me into the project that resulted in the documentary .”&Բ;&Բ;
Berry serves as teaching pastor at in Brooklyn, New York, and in 2021 he joined Our Daily Bread Ministries as director, content developer, and partnership liaison. Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom is a joint project of Our Daily Bread Voices and production.
While in Texas to interview people for the documentary, Berry learned of the many ways congregations and individuals celebrate Juneteenth. He and Christian leaders from various North American cultures believe that more churches and communities—not just Black ones—should observe Juneteenth as a testimony that all people are made in God’s image. “The connections between Jubilee, Jesus, and Juneteenth are strong because the notion of human dignity for the dispossessed and oppressed and liberation for all is a throughline throughout the biblical texts,” Berry says.
This guide to worship and other resources for celebrating Juneteenth has six parts:
Appreciation and Respect explains why and how congregations of all cultures in the U.S. (and sometimes in Canada) should consider observing Juneteenth.
Event Ideas looks at how Juneteenth is already being observed.
91 Service Timing, Litanies, and Prayers offers advice on planning worship related to Juneteenth.
Music suggests songs suitable for Juneteenth-related worship.
Sermon Planning offers sermon starters and approaches to use near Juneteenth but also in other services during the church year.
Sample Juneteenth 91 Services links to service plans to use or adapt.
The Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom film includes the story Opal Lee, who to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in the United States. “People want to think about Juneteenth as a Black thing or a Texas thing, but it’s not,” she says. “It’s freedom for everybody. And I advocate celebrating freedom from the nineteenth of June to the Fourth of July.”&Բ;&Բ;
Berry agrees that you don’t have to be Black or attend a predominantly Black church to celebrate Juneteenth with appreciation and respect. Canada celebrates and each August in ways similar to Juneteenth celebrations.
“Stay away from white cultural appropriation,” Berry advises. “In 2022, the year after Juneteenth became a US federal holiday, Walmart came out with a Juneteenth ice cream flavor. That was widely panned as crass commercialism. Sometimes people distort Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous statement—‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’—to attack race consciousness.” In other words, saying that you “don’t see color” makes people feel as if you’re erasing their culture.
Nor does Berry suggest that non-Black churches try to mimic Black culture. “Every year I see unfortunate examples online, like a white pastor or fraternity member puts on blackface, dresses like a rapper, and uses a supposedly Black dialect to do a rap song.”&Բ;
Yet he also cautions against the other extreme of “doing nothing because you’re so afraid you’ll do it wrong. If you’re going to talk about July 4, then it’s also appropriate to reference June 19. On Juneteenth we can recognize that we still live in a broken culture segregated by many intentional forces. Fragmentation makes it more challenging and less intuitive to have conversations across race, but Juneteenth gives us an opportunity to try to talk together.”&Բ;
He suggests that non-Black churches reach out to Black churches for permission to join their Juneteenth events. “Support what Juneteenth events are already happening that you can get on board with. If a Black church or local community isn’t already doing something, perhaps you could cosponsor a Juneteenth showing with a cross-cultural dialogue about current conditions. Don’t overspiritualize themes of justice and freedom. Keep your events close to the topic.”&Բ;
The key is to while seeing Black history as an American and human experience that we all can share. We can both and . Freedom for all begins with freedom for marginalized people. And it’s fine to say “Happy Juneteenth!” to anyone to whom you’d normally say “Happy Thanksgiving!”
In the Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom documentary, Berry travels to Galveston to meet people who take pride in the city their enslaved ancestors helped build or who worship in the pews that Black people both built and owned.
Over the decades, Black people have celebrated Juneteenth with church-based community events, parades, barbecues, family reunions, concerts, historical pageants, pilgrimages, and more. You can also celebrate Juneteenth by organizing a service project or visiting a Black museum or cultural site.
Berry knows of many churches that have offered a Juneteenth screening after a worship service along with a meal, discussion, or concert. The 2022 documentary runs about 76 minutes. In 2023, PBS aired a of the film. The longer version includes an appearance by Black Christian rapper Lecrae, though Berry says the shorter version may work better for a younger audience’s attention span. If you sign up to you’ll get resources to plan, promote, and execute your event.
Our Daily Bread partnered with PBS to create for educators and students. You can go to the to get devotionals and other content.
Berry says that if you’re a non-Black congregation reaching out to a predominantly Black church, you might suggest promoting the film together, selling tickets, and then donating ticket proceeds to the Black church.
If a Juneteenth event is being publicly promoted, he says, then it’s fine for anyone to attend. Secular Juneteenth events often offer opportunities to buy from Black vendors. “They want your business,” he explains.
You might also highlight books about Juneteenth and Black history through a book club, a book giveaway, library donations, or church newsletter book reviews. Consider reading:
, by Arlisha Norwood, shows that it took courage to start celebrating the abolition of slavery on Juneteenth.
, by Clint Smith. This book distinguishes between honest and whitewashed history about how slavery impacted all Americans.
, by Edward T. Cotham, is .
, by Annette Gordon-Reed, a Pulitzer Prize winner, uses in this novel about Juneteenth’s importance to American history.
, edited by Ira Berlin and Steven F. Miller, draws on first-person interviews of formerly enslaved people conducted in the 1930s.
, a novel by Alice Baumgartner, explains how the Underground Railroad ran south into Mexico as well as north to freedom. Those fleeing Galveston and New Orleans helped influence Mexico’s abolition of slavery.
, by Jemar Tisby, profiles many unsung heroes of freedom. include the children’s picture book and for preteens.
Also check out by United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
Because Juneteenth often falls near Father’s Day, which many churches celebrate, a Juneteenth worship service may not be feasible—but other options exist. For example. Berry’s church, the Bridge Church in Brooklyn, has hosted screenings and dialogue through , a Christian civic discipleship coalition. PMA helps justice conversations continue in New York City. “When migrants were being bussed to New York City from the US/Mexico border, we organized conversations to raise awareness about what God says about strangers and aliens,” Berry says.
“91 planners are advised to include lament, reflecting on the injustice of slavery and the extra two and a half years it took for freedom to be announced, evaluating where we are now through messages, and crafting a plan for change through panels,” Berry says.
has a litany called “A Christian Affirmation of Juneteenth.” It also has worship arts ideas for skits and dramas to increase intergenerational participation as well as song suggestions from a dozen genres.
After joining a racial justice pilgrimage to the American South sponsored by , Drs. Ronald J. Feenstra and Barbara Bradley Feenstra wrote five prayer litanies suitable for Juneteenth or any time:
Just as Pray March Act hosted panel discussions on immigrants as part of its Juneteenth ethos, your church might weave in “The Immigrants’ Creed” (an adapted Apostle’s Creed) or worship resources for radical hospitality.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore published “.” It also shares resources on Month (November).
The Diocese of Tucson provides a , a Black Catholic nun whose grandparents were enslaved and who is now .
Lisa M. Weaver compiled several worship elements for a Juneteenth service, including a call to worship, three prayers, Scripture passages, and music suggestions. Her prayers and suggested adaptations work well in both Black and non-Black settings.
Jesuit Resource at Xavier University created Juneteenth .
shares many prayers for Juneteenth, including contributions from and Cole Arthur Riley. Find more prayers in Cole Arthur Riley’s book .
91 for Workers offers scores of contemporary prayers, such as “,” “,” and “.”&Բ;
Berry reports that some churches have planned a concert or worship service using songs from the . In this (1:05) Berry explains how Sho Baraka, Lecrae, Propaganda, Reflect, Andrea Vocab Sanderson, and other Black artists created music, poetry, and spoken word for the documentary. Listen to , who is now .
Consider choosing songs for a Juneteenth worship service or community sing-along from Black hymnals such as the , , or the African American Catholic hymnal .
The songs below are suitable for Juneteenth and listed on , a free online comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals.
“” is by Fred Kaan, who grew up under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands while his parents sheltered refugees.
“” was written by , the South African Anglican bishop who famously practiced love while resisting apartheid.
“,” written by Curtis Burrell, gives people strength to go on. Listen to and a about how the song came about.
“” is by , who was born six months after the first Juneteenth and went on to found the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA.
“,” written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and set to music by his brother J. Rosamund Johnson, is often known as “.”&Բ;&Բ;
“,” by , known as the “father of gospel music,” was sung by , known as the “mother of gospel music,” throughout the Civil Rights Movement and at .
“,” a song from the Xhosa people, is a good sending song.
For contemporary songs, check out multiracial song collectives such as:
: “” asks the Lord to heal racism. “” is based on the Beatitudes. And “,” while not explicitly Christian, would work well paired with an event such as a screening of the Juneteenth film.
: Its 2021 assures worshipers of God’s presence through “,” ”,” and “.”&Բ;
: Its 2020 album song “” acknowledges that Christians sometimes feel as if God is silent or absent during communal upheaval. “,” on the 2020 album, pleads, “Almighty God, help us not be afraid . . . Give us your strength.”&Բ;
Berry preaches once a month at Bridge Street NYC and helps lead the congregation’s 6:30 a.m. weekday prayer calls. He says it’s not hard to include Juneteenth themes throughout the church year.
“I choose to really see and reference what’s in the text,” he explains. “The Bible is chock-full of passages about justice and race. I read the psalms daily and see how much they talk about justice. For example, I recently highlighted during a prayer call in a week when our church was fasting. What Isaiah speaks about is happening in our own culture. People are fasting, but God isn’t pleased. We talked about how there is value in fasting from food or social media, but this chapter shows that the kind of fasting God has chosen is ‘to loose the chains of injustice, . . . to set the oppressed free, . . . to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.’ In other words, we have a prophetic responsibility to speak and act for justice.”&Բ;
When he preached on Acts 8:26-40, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, Berry reminded worshipers of “what is already there in the passage. Philip was led by the Holy Spirit to speak with the eunuch. He preached the whole counsel of the gospel, which shows us that Christianity is not just for the white man. The eunuch was a sexual minority, so his temple access would have been restricted. This passage leads us to identify the way we need to cross barriers today to people considered ‘less than’ or ‘other.’”
Lisa M. Weaver has suggested several psalms and Jeremiah 29:11 as good preaching passages for Juneteenth. Sample Juneteenth services online include sermons based on Exodus 15:20–21, Psalm 78:1–11, Isaiah 30:25–26, Luke 4:14–21, and Acts 3:12–16.
Good sources for cultural, historical, and contextual content about Juneteenth include , Lisa M. Weaver’s research on liturgical practices of enslaved Africana people, and Jemar Tisby’s blog post about .
offers valuable essays about hearing God’s voice embodied through people of color. Its many essays especially helpful for Juneteenth sermons include “African American Biblical Interpretation” and “Letter to the Ephesians,” by Esau D. McCaulley; “Letter to the Colossians” and “Letter to Philemon,” by Dennis R. Edwards; and “Resources for the Mental Health of the Oppressed in the New Testament: A Contemporary Reading of Ancient Teachings,” by Christin J. Fort.
“The story of Juneteenth is teaching that the end of slavery, no matter how incomplete, is worthy of celebration,” Berry says. “It is an invitation to meet despair with hope, oppression with justice, and hate with love. And even when it seems unattainable, my faith causes me to never stop fighting for freedom.”&Բ;
Here are sample Juneteenth worship services that capture at least in part the emotional truths that Berry sees in the story of Juneteenth.
During the pandemic, First Albany Reformed Church created a
The Vivian Traylor Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians created this and provides an for download.
First Presbyterian Church of Rochester, Minnesota, structured its . It alternates readings, Scripture readings, and litanies with music, and there’s no sermon.
This is reproduced with permission from , edited by Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiya Fosua.
You can use online , , and resources from The African American Lectionary to create your own Juneteenth worship service.
