Thursday, June 18, 2015

Prayers for Emanuel AME Church and for All of Us


I am hard-pressed for words this morning in the wake of the terrible news from Charleston, South Carolina. Pictured above is the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine people lost their lives in a mass shooting while they had been engaged in a Bible Study. It's likely that they had welcomed the shooter to the Bible Study with open arms and that the shooter even sat down for a while before commencing the shooting.

The late Jack Stott, a former president of Austin Presbyterian Seminary, offered the following thoughts in the weeks following 9/11, and I find his words helpful today ....

"No matter how dark and widespread the shadows of death, God is with us. To guide us. To comfort us. . . . And to point us to the day when all sit at table together, when former enemies become friends, when abundance overflows and covers the earth. We are bearers of a dream, a vision that refuses to be distorted by hatred, anger, and fear; a dream of forgiveness, love, and righteousness."

May such a vision give us courage to work for racial reconciliation as we have never worked before.

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