Litany of Remembrance and Thanksgiving
This litany was prepared by the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies for River Road Church, Baptist in Richmond, Va.
Below is the section on religious liberty. View the PDF to read the entire litany.
Voice of Religious Liberty:
Leader:
When the Baptists arrived in Virginia they were no more free to worship than they had been in England. At times and in places they were tolerated. At other times and in certain places they were openly persecuted. Baptist ministers were beaten, whipped and jailed in Virginia for preaching. The names of the imprisoned ministers are many and include James Ireland, Jeremiah Moore, Lewis Craig, John Waller and William Webber.
The Baptists of Virginia struggled to secure religious liberty by enduring persecution, circulating petitions calling for an end to the state church, and by influencing the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who placed religious liberty into the documents of Virginia and the New Republic. We remain grateful for the courageous Baptists who in our own time in history continue to defend the cornerstone of all our freedoms – religious liberty.
People: Praise be to you, O Lord!
