[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs] Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori calls for prayer following the tragedy in Connecticut:
We grieve with the many families and friends touched by this shooting in Connecticut. We mourn the loss of lives so young and innocent. We grieve that the means of death are so readily available to people who lack the present capacity to find other ways of responding to their own anger and grief. We know that God’s heart is broken over this tragedy, and the tragedies that unfold each and every day across this nation. And we pray that this latest concentration of shooting deaths in one event will awaken us to the unnoticed number of children and young people who die senselessly across this land every day. More than 2000 children and youth die from guns each year, more than the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Will you pray and work toward a different future, the one the Bible’s prophets dreamed of, where city streets are filled with children playing in safety (Zechariah 8:5)?
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
May Almighty God give solace to those families who lost their beloved one and strengthen them with Christ’s peace in all understanding? We also pray for our leaders for sensible decision to control insensible killing in future, so that no mother shed tears again; also for uplifting moral value of young generation introducing prayer in school. God fearing is basic for any wisdom and to be a good citizen.
May God send the Comforter and Advocate.
Noting that the private equity firm Cerberus is to sell its stake in Freedom Group, which owns the gunmaker Bushmaster, in response to actions by a Californian teachers’ group, I wonder, not having followed our investments closely, if all our denominational money is out of the arms making business. Maybe market forces can accomplish what a timid or intransigent Congress cannot. It seems to me that we need to address the economic addiction to gun manufacturing and sales as but one means to address the violence of our society.
Frankly, prayer – whether in schools or elsewhere – is of little value in addressing and solving this gun violence issue. What’s needed is concrete and substantive action by all faith communities. Absent this, such action(s) by the episcopal church would be a good place to start.
On dec. 16, rev. gary hall, dean of the national cathedral, called for a ‘gospel lobby’ to counter the gun lobby. he offered no specifics for putting meat on the bones of such a proposal (i e-mailed his office asking for just such ‘meat’ for local parishes to implement, but have yet to receive a reply. same re. my own diocesan bishop’s office). So, here’s what i’d like to see Episcopal News Service do: set up a page (not just a blog) for dialog on this matter and as a site in which concerned faithful can profer and exchange ideas for grass-roots, parochial action(s). Also, urge all our clergy to convene forums in their local communities to discuss how each faith community (jewish, moslem, hindu, christian, etc.) is responding to and/or would like to respond to this plague of lethal violence; and, perhaps, urge every episcopal parish to 1) petition members of congress and V.P.Biden’s committee on gun violence to place far more restrictive limits than any currently in place on the manufacture and availability of assault and assault-style weapons and 2) join the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence or other anti-gun violence organization(s).