Message from Bishop Jose from the Diocese of Western North Carolina

 A good friend of mine is now the Bishop of the Diocese of Western North Carolina.  He offered this email this week, which includes not only prayers, but also recommended actions in response to gun violence.

Good resources here,

Pray, and ACT! 

In Christ's Peace,

Peter+

View as Webpage May 25, 2022 Dear friends, Yesterday, we received news of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. At present, there have been two teachers and nineteen young students confirmed dead. I am angry and I am grieving. Tonight, there are families in shock and parents staring at 19 empty beds. This shooting comes just ten days after another shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, a racially motivated attack that killed ten people. Those families haven't even begun burying their lost loved ones. This upcoming December, we will recognize ten years since the Sandy Hook Massacre. And yet, here we are again, having these same conversations and feeling this same inexplicable anger, grief, and loss over the murder of innocent people and children. Enough is enough! I am inviting all of our churches to join me tomorrow, the Feast of the Ascension, in a day of prayer and action. As the disciples of Jesus did so long ago, let us gather in prayer and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and our land. As a sign of our faith in his promise and our commitment to take action, as well as our solidarity with the grieving, I ask our churches to toll their bells for 10 minutes before Noonday Prayers. However, thoughts and prayers are not sufficient this time. Yes, pray for the families, the loved ones of those whose lives were taken too soon. But as Christians, we are also called to live out our faith in the world in action, for "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:17) It is time --in fact it is long past time -- that we begin to take action to protect our siblings in Christ, to take tangible steps to support responsible gun legislation and advocate for those who's voices have been taken away. This is not a partisan issue. It is a public health issue, no matter your political party, no matter your background or your language or your culture. As followers of Christ it is our duty to work tirelessly to ensure no more lives are stolen through gun violence. Below are some resources in order to take tangible action: The Episcopal Office of Government Relations Resources to Respond to Gun Violence from the Episcopal Church Episcopal Church Policies on Gun Safety and Gun Reform Action Alert on Supporting Gun Reform Contact Your Representatives Contact Senator Burr and Tillis Find Your Legislators Further Advocacy Faith and Citizenship: A Guide to Effective Advocacy for Episcopalians The Episcopal Public Policy Network It is time to take urgent action. While the issue before us won't be solved overnight and we may feel overwhelmed by the horror of it all, we are called to join those in our communities working to advocate, teach and build relationships to enact positive change. Gun violence is a public health crisis that will only be rectified with intentional, consistent steps. The time for that action is now. Faithfully, The Rt. Rev. José A. McLoughlin Bishop May we remember the names of those who lost their lives: Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Mackneil, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, Ruth Whitfield Eva Mireles, Uziyah Garcia, Amerie Jo Garza, Xavier Javier Lopez, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, Nevaeh Bravo, Eliahana Torres, Makenna Lee Elrod, Ellie Garcia, Irma Garcia, Jackie Cazares, and those whose names we do not yet know... The Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina 900B CentrePark Drive Asheville, NC 28805 www.diocesewnc.org  ‌  ‌  ‌

Prayers in times of violence

 

A prayer in times of violence

God of all humanity,

in times of violence

we see how inhuman we can be.

We pray for those who, today, are weighed down by grief.

We pray for those who, yesterday, were weighed down by grief.

And the day before,

and all the days before the day before.

We pray, too, for those who help us turn towards justice and peace.

Turn us all towards justice and peace

because we need it.

Amen.

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:17-18

God of peace, we remember the children and our siblings killed today in Texas. Following those killed in Buffalo and so many other tragedies. Please let us stop, just stop, adding names to the prayer list. Lord, have mercy. When will our hearts of stone turn into hearts of flesh?

Prayers in a time of violence

 

Dear Beloved Parishioners,

In this time of violence and suffering, may we offer up our prayers and also work to end these horrific tragedies.  A prayer from our diocesan commission to end gun violence, and a prayer from our Bishop, Daniel Gutierrez.  

Peter+

A prayer in times of violence

God of all humanity,

in times of violence

we see how inhuman we can be.

We pray for those who, today, are weighed down by grief.

We pray for those who, yesterday, were weighed down by grief.

And the day before,

and all the days before the day before.

We pray, too, for those who help us turn towards justice and peace.

Turn us all towards justice and peace

because we need it.

Amen.

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:17-18

God of peace, we remember the children and our siblings killed today in Texas. Following those killed in Buffalo and so many other tragedies. Please let us stop, just stop, adding names to the prayer list. Lord, have mercy. When will our hearts of stone turn into hearts of flesh?

The Rev. Peter Carey

Rector, St. Mary's Episcopal Church - Cathedral Road

Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

Pastoral statement on mass shooting in Buffalo from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Pastoral statement on mass shooting in Buffalo from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

May 16, 2022

Office of Public Affairs

My heart is heavy with the news that a white supremacist gunman took the lives of 10 children of God in

Buffalo on Saturday. I grew up walking distance from the scene of this hateful crime, and my friends and

I used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood.  Buffalo’s Black community raised and formed me.

I grieve with the city and people I love.

The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting,

and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long.

Bigotry-based violence—any bigotry at all—against our siblings who are people of color,

Jewish, Sikh, Asian, trans, or any other group, is fundamentally wrong. As baptized followers of

Jesus of Nazareth, we are called to uphold and protect the dignity of every human child of God,

and to actively uproot the white supremacy and racism deep in the heart of our shared life.

Please join me in prayer for the shattered families in Buffalo. Please also join me in expressing

profound gratitude for the intervention by Buffalo police that likely saved many other lives.

Even amid tragedy, even when manifestations of evil threaten to overwhelm, let us hold fast to the good. 

It is the only way that leads to life.

Join us! Indoor In-Person Sunday Holy Eucharist at 10am

  Join us!

Indoor In-Person Sunday Holy Eucharist at 10am

☩ Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church ☩ 

630 East Cathedral Road Philadelphia, PA 19428

stmarycathrd@gmail.com 

215.482.6300

Click  HERE to visit our YouTube Channel

Creating Space ~ From Brene

From Brené “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” —Viktor Frankl If you wrote this quote as a formula, it might look like this: S(     )R. I didn’t grow up with any understanding or even awareness of this space. I grew up with the R starting before the S was even done. Something happened, someone did or said something, and I’d come out swinging or fearing or worrying or apologizing. No space. No choosing a response. Hell, not even the parentheses. Just responding in a way that led to more stacked stimuli and responses. There was very little growth and very little freedom. The very first time I became aware of the potential for that space was when I got sober. My sobriety birthday is May 12—I’ll have 26 years this year.   For me, the gift and superpower of sobriety is being able to pry open that space. Over the years, the parentheses between stimulus and response slowly came into focus. It looked a little like this: S()R. Sobriety gave me the strength and focus to pry open the parentheses just enough to stick my foot in. While I wasn’t actually wrestling with parentheses, I was emotionally wrestling to create space.   I try to keep that space wedged open with my sobriety, sleep, prayer, working out, practicing curiosity, therapy, and intentional breathing—to name a few. This effort to create space is probably why our team lovingly refers to our podcasts as pause-casts. I stop now and take a breath before I ask or answer a question. It’s awkward, but it’s life-giving. They call it the sacred pause in Buddhism, and it is core to my well-being. The quote above has become the source code for my life. The past couple of years have been hard—personally and professionally—and I’ve found that space closing in on itself again. My responses have started sliding too close to the stimuli. I’m tired, and the pause is suffering. I can’t let that happen to me or to our organization. We need breath and space. To reinvest in that space, I’ve decided to take a sabbatical this summer. I’ve never done it before, and just the thought of taking off 14 weeks is anxiety-producing for someone who can struggle to take a week off. And, to make sure we have a critical mass of restorative time in our organization, we’re closing the offices every Friday for paid time off, and everyone in the organization has been asked to take four weeks of paid vacation time this summer, in addition to their normal vacation time. Members of our awkward, brave, and kind team. To make this work across our organization, we are going dark on social media effective today. We are also going on a podcast hiatus over the summer. We will be back on social and return to podcasting again after Labor Day. There are three more don’t-miss podcasts hitting the airwaves in the next two weeks. And I’ve got one event, on Ted Lasso–style kindness, that’s been on the books for a year.   In one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard, actress, screenwriter, director, and producer Michaela Coel said, “Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while and see what comes to you in the silence.” I’m a big fan of silence. I can’t wait!   We set audacious goals in our organization—like “Start global conversations about shame and vulnerability”—but this might be our boldest move yet. We’ll be back this fall. Rested and ready for our next audacious goal.    P.S. Very tricky attribution on the stimulus/response quote. It’s often attributed to Stephen Covey, but he’s on the record explaining that he read it in a book while on vacation in Hawaii and was not able to find the book or attribution again. It’s very in line with Viktor Frankl’s work, but it’s not verbatim in any of his published books. It’s possibly Rollo May or B.F. Skinner. No one knows for sure, but I’m going with Viktor Frankl. Stay awkward, brave, and kind, Follow Brené on social! If this was forwarded to you, subscribe here. © 2022 BBEARG, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Responses to this email are not monitored. Our mailing address is: BBEARG P.O. Box 272124 Houston, TX 77277 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.