[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 19008]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  One hundred thirty-eight years ago on this date, September 22, 1862, 
Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation ``containing among other things, 
the following . . . that on the 1st day of January 1863, all persons 
held as slaves within any State . . . shall be then, thenceforward and 
forever free. . . .''
  Abraham Lincoln looked ``upon this act (and) sincerely believed (it) 
to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution. . . .'' He 
said, ``I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God.''
  May You, the Almighty, continue to look upon this Nation and all its 
people with favor. By our commitment to see all persons free, may we be 
judged by You and by the world.
  Cleansed by Your Spirit, may this Nation be rid of all racial strife 
and become a light to the world, a people who know their diversity, 
embrace differences with understanding and struggle continually to set 
themselves and others free from all forms of prejudice.
  In You, Our God, we see ourselves as a people now and forever free.
  Amen.

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