Breaking of the Fast Ritual

We’re here to end our time of physical vigil and fast in solidarity with those inside this detention center, knowing that we will continue to hold constant vigil in our hearts until no person is detained here.
May we have the perseverance to continue to strive for a community where no one is detained or separated from those they love, and where the humanity of all is reclaimed.
We’re here because workers – those who contribute to the creative fabric of our community, those who build the infrastructure of our society, and those who contribute their strength to making this world a more livable place for all – are imprisoned here.
May we continue to contribute our creativity, work, and strength to making this a community where everyone’s labor is valued and honored.
We’re here to honor and remember the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, partners, neighbors, and friends detained here. We stand in resistance today of initiatives that rip our families and neighborhoods apart.
May we honor all of the relationships in our lives that sustain us, nurture us, and support us in creating a better world.
We’re here because we believe that our community can be something different and something better than this broken system of detainment has to offer us. We’re here because we vision a world where borders, barbed-wire, and fences do not control our human relationships.
May we consider the ways we perpetuate a spirit of detainment and control in our lives and strive to dismantle the spirit of enforcement everywhere in our world.
We’re here because we are thankful – for the earth’s ability to produce food for us, for the hands that sow seeds and harvest produce, for the people who transport food to our local area, and for all those whose hands have touched this bread along the way.
May we honor them in the way we share and eat this meal and remember the ways every action we do affects many others in our world.

We will now break bread together in order to break our fast as a symbol of the ways we nourish each other, the goal of sharing community together, and the desire for every member of our community to be offered a place at the same table of fellowship.
As you receive the bread, please find someone who you do not know, or don’t know very well, exchange names with them, and then offer them bread saying:
“With this bread I offer you nourishment, acceptance, and love as a member of my community.”