A Prayer for Action, One Year After Sandy Hook

A Prayer for Action, One Year After Sandy Hook
By Mariann Edgar Budde and Ian Douglas
December 13, 2013

[Huffington Post] On the morning that Adam Lanza killed his mother and then opened fire on children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we were on the phone with one another, talking about a priest who was hoping to move from one of our dioceses to the other. There was an early report of a school shooting somewhere in Connecticut, but no official word yet. "It's a harsh world, Mariann," Ian said. We paused, prayed silently, and said our goodbyes.

A year later, both of our communities are among the growing list of places across the country with names linked to mass violence: Newtown. The Navy Yard. As bishops, we have led funerals, as pastors we have comforted those who mourn, and as citizens we have petitioned our governments to take steps to prevent such heart-wrenching violence.

Yet our communities' grief and concern are not limited to the victims of horrific outbursts that seize the nation's attention. Nearly every day on the streets of our cities, teenagers and young adults die or are forever maimed because of easy access to lethal handguns. Because the vast majority of those killed in urban violence are people of color, handgun violence is largely ignored by white America.

Ignored, too, are those who use a gun to take their own lives. In the United States, on average, approximately 30,000 people are killed by bullet wounds each year. Most of these victims pull the trigger themselves. Many of those who die this way are veterans haunted by the trauma they endured serving our nation. Our hearts break for each and every one of these victims.

We are beyond frustrated with political leaders who continue to turn their backs on this national tragedy. Poll after poll has demonstrated that close to 90 percent of Americans favor closing the loopholes in the national system of background checks that is already in place. More than 50 national religious leaders wrote to every member of Congress this week, urging them to pass the legislation known as the Manchin-Toomey bill in the Senate and the King-Thompson bill in the House. This legislation would expand background checks to cover sales at gun shows and on the Internet.

We know that this legislation will not, by itself, end the mass killings that now occur in this country every other week, according to a recent study by USA Today. By itself, it will not end the violence that takes one life at a time either in suicide or in urban violence. But it will help save hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives, primarily by keeping guns out of the hands of those who are not legally permitted to own them.

According to a study released in September by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, private transactions that are not covered by the current federal system of background checks account for about 40 percent of the gun sales in this country -- a total of 6.6 million guns. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have closed this loophole, and the results are encouraging. Federal and state data establishes that in these jurisdictions, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners; 39 percent fewer law enforcement officers are shot to death with handguns not their own; 49 percent fewer people kill themselves with handguns, and there were 17 percent fewer aggravated assaults involving a firearm.

A year has passed since that terrible morning when we first heard the news from Newtown. Church and community leaders have comforted those who mourn, rallied the faithful, and worked at piecemeal solutions to a systematic problem. In all this time, Congress has done nothing. It is long past time to pass legislation that will expand background checks and other modest measures that will save lives and assuage even a small portion of the grief caused by gun violence that has become a staple of our pastoral duties and our prayers.

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. They are members of Bishops Against Gun Violence.

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Will we listen?

When will take serious Mental Health issues?

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/12/health/mentally-ill-son/

When will take GUN violence seriously?

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/08/the-real-tragedy-of-americas-gun-violence/

I agree with this statement:

The question we should really be focused on is not the specific cause of a single shooting, but why there are so many of them in America. To remind you, in recent years there have been around 10,000 gun homicides a year in the United States. According to the United States, in Germany and Canada, there were fewer than 200. In Spain, fewer than 100. In Australia fewer than 50.

Prayers:

From Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori

Gracious God, you walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We pray that the suffering and terrorized be surrounded by the incarnate presence of the crucified and risen one. May every human being be reminded of the precious gift of life you entered to share with us. May our hearts be pierced with compassion for those who suffer, and for those who have inflicted this violence, for your love is the only healing balm we know. May the dead be received into your enfolding arms, and may your friends show the grieving they are not alone as they walk this vale of tears. All this we pray in the name of the one who walked the road to Calvary. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer, pg. 831, Prayer 55

O merciful Father, who has taught us in your holy Word that you do not willingly afflict or grieve those who suffer: Look with pity upon the sorrows of your servant for whom our prayers are offered. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy; nourish their souls with patience, comfort them with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon them and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Grieving Our Lost Children

"Grieving Our Lost Children"
by Walter Brueggemann

Another brutality,
another school killing,
another grief beyond telling . . .
and loss . . .
in Colorado,
in Wisconsin,
among the Amish
in Virginia
in Sandy Hook
 Where next?

We are reduced to weeping silence,
even as we breed a violent culture,
even as we kill the sons and daughters of our "enemies,"
even as we fail to live and cherish and respect
the forgotten of our common life.

There is no joy among us as we empty our schoolhouses;
there is no health among us as we move in fear and bottomless anxiety;
there is little hope among us as we fall helpless before
the gunshot and the shriek and the blood and the panic: we pray to you only because we do not know what else to do.
So we pray, move powerfully in our body politic,
move us toward peaceableness
that does not want to hurt or to kill,
move us toward justice
that the troubled and the forgotten may know mercy,
move use toward forgiveness that we
may escape the trap of revenge.

Empower us to turn our weapons to acts of mercy,
to turn our missiles to gestures of friendship,
to turn our bombs to policies of reconciliation;
and while we are turning,
hear our sadness,
our loss,
our bitterness.

We dare to pray our needfulness to you because you have been there on that
gray Friday,
and watched your own Son be murdered
for "reasons of state."

Good God, do Easter!
Here and among these families,
here and in all our places of brutality.

Move our Easter grief now . . .
without too much innocence -
to your Sunday joy.
We pray in the one crucified and risen
who is our Lord and Savior.

A Prayer for Children

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blankets to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
who spend all their allowances before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on and for those
who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother…and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

[The poem was written following the Oklahoma City bombing by Ina Hughes, columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. from A Prayer for Children by Ina Hughs. Wm. Morrow and Company, NY., 1995. Pgs XIV-XV.]

December 14 - Day of Service

To honor and remember Sandy Hook...

Monroe Clergy Association’s
Day of Service
December 14, 2013
10 AM to 1 PM

10 AM

Meetinghouse at Monroe Congregational Church
Ecumenical Advent Worship Service

In memory of those who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.

Join us to light a candle, hear the bells toll, and pray for the continued recovery of those who have been affected.

11 AM – 1 PM

There will be locations around town in which participants may engage in an act of service.

Here at St. Peter’s, we will have a space for children & families to do some arts and crafts for peace
(peace cranes, snowflakes, Ben’s Bells) which they can share with others.

We will also be assembling a “Cocoa for Caring” project to benefit the Monroe Food Pantry.

Advent Practice: Random Acts of Kindness & Peace

He has told you what is good; and what the Lord requires of you:

but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas: a time to prepare joyfully for Christ’s return and his reign. By reflecting on our lives in the light of God’s Word, we recognize the direction in which our present values and habits are leading us, and see that many places in our lives need to be changed. We further recognize that only the action of God can make that change in us. In the words of the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, it is God who enables us “to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 211).

We recognize that God did not redeem us in a vacuum, apart from human participation. God brought about the Incarnation of the Son through the cooperation of Mary with the life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, Mary’s vocation is not only to bear the God incarnate, but also to be the pattern for us as we become “God-bearers” by means of following her example of cooperation with the divine grace. (from APLM)

This Advent you are invited to live out your vocation as a God-bearer, to help share the light in the midst of darkness.  On December 14, 2012 a terrible tragedy took place in Newtown.  Let's honor the memory of all those who lost their lives and all the families whose lives have been turned upside down by acting with kindness and peace for Advent as we approach Christmas. (Thank you to the Schill family for this wonderful idea of honoring their memory and to continue this wonderful practice of giving such acts of love in the midst of such terrible hate.)

We will begin the day before Thanksgiving. Wednesday, November 27 – The first of 28 days…

On 27 of those days, we remember the victims who died last December and their families.  We honor their memory, we act with love, and we practice our random acts of kindness and peace.

On 1 of those days, we remember the one who chose hate over love, who acted cruelly to the innocent BUT we do not let his act be the last word, for we honor all those helpers (the first responders) and all those who sought to bring healing to the community of Newtown.  We choose to act with love.  Consider writing to someone who has wronged you and forgive them; write to someone in prison or jail; talk civilly with a person at work or play that you always disagree with; write and give thanks to a first responder; in whatever way you choose, by your action, you can help bring more love into this world.

In a world filled with too much tragedy, too much hate, it’s up to us to be the change we want to see in the world (as Gandhi would put it).  If we are to be ready to receive the Christ child once again at Christmas, let us take these days to ready our hearts through loving, peaceful and kind actions toward our neighbors.

Join us and be God-bearers to our world today!

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friendship, Love, and Mass Shootings

Friendship, Love, and Mass Shootings: Toward a Theological Response for Gun Control
by Lyndon Shakespeare
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2013

This essay explores the place of assault weapons in a theology concerned to emphasize human well-being and community. Current debates and recent tragedies that have included assault weapons raise questions beyond the usual appeals to political rights and individual freedoms. Drawing on the analysis of community in Aristotle and particularly Aquinas, this work seeks to promote a Christian vision of human action and friendship grounded in the church’s confession of the crucified Christ. The essay concludes with a section on the role of the church in a society that includes the use and advocacy of assault weapons.

A very thoughtful essay, much to chew on.  Not yet available online.

Contact ATR and get a copy!

Promoting Peace amidst Gun Violence

There is too much gun violence in our country.

That shouldn't be debatable but it is for some in our country.

But no matter how you slice it, tens of thousands of lives are cut short every year by guns. There are murders, there are murder-suicides, there are suicides and the accidents too. Its too many.

We need to consider the costs to our society and our lives.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2013/10/gun_violence_epidemiology_garen_wintemute_on_mental_illness_and_background.html

As a father of five, I think about guns and kids:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html

We need to pray and to act in peace:

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!

Mimetic Desire (Rene' Girard)

A pastor was just killed in Louisanna when the murderer thought the pastor was having an affair with his wife.

This fits perfectly with what Abbott Andrew has been talking about using the work of Rene' Girard and it is important stuff!

What is it?

"René Girard has given us a whole new dimension to explore in the subconscious by suggesting that it is primarily mimetic desire that we find there. (See Human See, Human Want) Mimetic desire, the desire of others that has infiltrated us since birth, gets under our skin and deep into our hearts. Hence the importance of the desires we present to small children to absorb. What keeps mimetic desire in our subconscious is our defiant pig-headed conviction that our desires belong to each of us alone and to nobody else. The stronger this sort of conviction, the more likely the desire is entangled in serious rivalry with somebody else; maybe a lot of somebodies. Somehow, we feel threatened at the idea that our desires are intertwined with the desires of everybody else and we push them away, only to have them manipulate us at very deep levels."

Start here:

http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/posts-collected-by-topic/mimetic-desire-and-mimetic-rivalry/

then go here:

http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/posts-collected-by-topic/mimetic-desire-and-mimetic-rivalry/mimetic-desire-and-truth-series/

Fall Formation Opportunity: Bible Study

Our Fall Bible Study (Wednesdays beginning October 2) will focus on the Gospel of Mark and all participants will get a FREE study bible of Mark (from Common English Bible).

“Mark’s Gospel tells the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth… It’s probably the earliest written Gospel, and it brings an urgent message about God’s coming kingdom. In Mark, Jesus shows the world what that kingdom looks like through deeds of power as well as suffering. Along the way he encourages others to trust in God’s kingdom and to join forces with him as God’s power defeats evil at every turn. In the end, Jesus’ resurrection displays God’s power over death itself.” (from the Introduction to Mark, CEB Study Bible)

Fall Formation Opportunity: On-Line School

St. Peter's on the Blackboard

Our congregation is embarking on a wonderful  new journey in Christian formation: We’re opening our own online school. This means we’ll be able to take courses together on a variety of topics including scripture, liturgy, and many other areas of personal and spiritual growth.

Courses are taught by experts and allow us to learn what we want, when we want, and at our own pace. We’ll be able to learn anywhere there’s an Internet connection on a PC, laptop, or tablet.  Our school will allow us to take courses by ourselves, in small groups, or even as a congregation. And there’s a discussion room in each class, with access to a moderator, so we don’t have to go it alone.

ChurchNext: Welcome to Online Christian Learning!  Fall Courses (begin in October) will include Introduction to the Bible & The Gospel of Mark.   If you would like to learn more or sign up for our online school, contact Rev Kurt. 

Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps

Are you 21 to 30 years old?
Are you ready for an experience that will transform your life?
Do you want to be a part of what God is doing in the world?
Do you want to experience diverse cultures, make a spiritual commitment, and reflect on your vocational possibilities?

If your answer is "Yes!" then you are ready to work with the Young Adult Service Corps in a one-year assignment. Watch the video!


More info: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/young-adult-service-corps

Fall Formation Opportunity: Film & Food

The fall/winter film series, Film and Food, will look at immigrants, legal and illegal, in this country and Europe, and the obstacles and prejudice that they face.  Food from the immigrants’ countries will be featured.  What follows is the tentative lineup of films subject to their availability.

September’s movie, The Other Side of Immigration, explores the reasons that people leave rural Mexico to work in the US.  The film provides a rare view of the issues from the immigrants’ perspective looking at the effects migration has on the families and communities that are left behind. (September 28 - Mexican food)

In October, we will be viewing Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino in which he plays an irascible retired auto worker living in Detroit next to a Hmong family.  Both humorous and touching, we see Eastwood’s character being forced to confront his racism head-on in an attempt to exorcise his haunting Korean War experiences. (October 26 – Hmong food)

November will feature Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.  In this German classic, an older widowed cleaning woman develops a strange and unlikely friendship with a young Moroccan.  As their relationship deepens, so does the prejudice of her neighbors and friends.  The film shows the devastating effects that public contempt has on the couple. (November 23, Moroccan food)

We will take a break for the holidays and resume the series in January.  More details will follow.

All Film & Food Nights begin at 6 PM.  Please RSVP.

Fall Formation Opportunity: EFM

About Education for Ministry

 
Education for Ministry (EfM) is a unique experiential theological education program for laity under the auspices of the Programs Center of the School of Theology. Since its foundation in 1957, the program has assisted students in discovering how to respond to the call to Christian service. The program requires four years to complete, and students enrollfor one year at a time. EfM helps people encounter the Christian tradition's breadth and depth and bring it together with their experiences of the world in the process of theological reflection.

EfM groups meet across the United States in 89 Episcopal dioceses and 12 parishes that sponsor the program. A group consists of six to 12 participants and a trained mentor who meet weekly, for two and a half to three hours, over the course of a nine-month academic year.

Approximately 70 EfM trainers accredited by Sewanee lead more than 200 mentor trainings per year. Ninety-five EfM coordinators (volunteer servant leaders) administer and support the program within their dioceses. Along with the United States, EfM groups are available in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Students who are unable to enroll in the face-to-face EfM groups may enroll in the Internet-based program, EfM Online. There are currently 16 online EfM groups, 53 online mentors, and 116 online students. 

In Shelton, Tuesday Nights!

You are invited to join our Education for Ministry group. We are a small group of inquiring Christians who meet weekly (September to June) to discuss Scripture, church history and theology. Discussion is lively and fun, reading is interesting and enlightening, (no papers or tests) and an opportunity to learn and grow in your faith. Our evenings consist of discussion, projects, worship and of course, snacks! The program covers four years but your commitment is for one year at a time. We meet on Tuesday evenings at St Paul's in Huntington from 6:45 to 9:30 PM. If you are interested in learning more about this great program, please contact Ginnie Glassman at GinnieG123@aol.com or 203-268-9322 or Nancy Wilson at 203-929-1722.