BLACK LITURGIES is a book of prayers, poems, and meditations, written by the Black American woman writer, poet, and spiritual guide Cole Arthur Riley. She brilliantly weaves together spirituality and Black liberation. Much of her writing is intense and beautiful, but does come out of the challenging background of slavery and now racial violence in America.
The book arose from a website that she created in response to Black Lives Matter. It was intended as an interactive, literary community for space for Black grief, Black anger, and the Black body. The idea of participation continues in the book. Each liturgy has the same architecture. They are all on themes, such as Place, Wonder, Dignity, Body, Fear, Belonging, Rage, Joy, Love, Justice, and many more. Each begins with a letter from her to you on the theme, then poetry, a breathing exercise, confession and forgiveness on the theme, and then ending with benediction and contemplation.
There is an overarching vision of finding the sacred in humanity, in physicality. Riley teaches that resistance is beautiful. For her, resistance is a refusal to have a disembodied life: heaven is here, not up there. She writes: “And in divine integrity, we must stay near to ourselves.” Resistance is to survive white supremacy and to heal the memories of abuse. Riley argues: “Don’t be mistaken, your anger doesn’t have to look like that of those who seek to destroy you. There is anger that affirms dignity instead of degrading it.”
For Cole Riley, it is not solely a question of Black liberation. She sees all liberation holding together, including queer and trans liberation, women’s, immigrants’, and all excluded and disadvantaged groups. Obviously, the women’s and Black issues touch her most personally and deeply. She is quite critical of “whiteness”, colonialism, homophobia, and patriarchy. All of her liturgies and meditations are woven by her autobiographical stories of what has happened to her and those around her. Riley has written: “This is sad to me. We must recover a habit of very specific story exchange and shared memory if we are to have robust liberation.”
In using this book of Black liturgies and prayers, it is not a good idea to read it straight thorough, as I have had to do. It is dense, poetic, and challengingly thoughtful. It is designed for you to stop, ponder, and pray. There are parts that you will not agree with. But that is good, because you can learn much from that. It is a very authentic voice for the 21st century for those who suffer, abused and excluded. Treat the liturgies like a good claret wine to be slowly savoured, not like a cold Coca-Cola to be quickly gulped down.
The Ven. Dr Lyle Dennen is a former Archdeacon of Hackney, in London.
Black Liturgies: Prayers, poems and meditations for staying human
Cole Arthur Riley
Hodder & Stoughton £18.99
(978-1-3998-1499-7)
Church Times Bookshop £17.09