Jan 2013 - Diocese of the Rio Grande

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14 IN THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE Honoring Sandy Hook Elementary Children Wooden angel figures were placed in a wooded area beside a road near the Sandy Hook Elementary School for the victims of a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut December 16, 2012. (Published by Episcopal News Service: Credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar) Honoring and Grieving A Response to the Horror of Murdered Children At 3 p.m. on Saturday, December 15, about 30 persons gathered at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Santa Fe for a service of mourning for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings. “Deciding to have the Saturday service at St. Bede’s to mourn and honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting had most to do with offering the healing beauty of Episcopal Liturgy both to our own members and to the public,” explained the Rev. Nicolette Papanek, priest in charge at St. Bede’s. “And, to offer it as soon as possible, rather than waiting until some time deemed appropriate by others. “I was struck in news coverage that while the first place people went when the tragedy happened was to the school, the second place they turned to was the church. For many people, the church is the place they go to in crisis,” the Rev. Papanek said. “I believe it represents a desire to encounter the holy, to be comforted by something both ancient and larger than we are, and to touch the eternal, if only briefly. Unless the church offers something of value at times like this, how can we expect people value us at other times? “A liturgy of deep and lasting value is what we tried to offer to people in the service, using the ancient pattern of Evening Prayer and incorporating contemporary words of comfort, lament, and petition,” she said. “Jerry Nelson, our music director, chose music that complemented our desire for people be comforted in their sadness yet strengthened for the work to come. In my brief homily, I admitted our vulnerability, including the vulnerability of clergy, yet challenged people to use this horrific event to co-create a better future, placing ourselves in God’s hands yet keeping our vision on a safe world for all children.” The timbre of the service followed in the wake of the officiant’s invocation of Psalm 139: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night,’ darkness is not dark to you, O Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike.” Using readings from the prophets, the liturgy invoked the tribulations and the promise of salvation from the Hebrew scriptures, and referenced the Gospel story of King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2:16-18). Prayers invoked the grief felt throughout the nation, and reflected in a Litany for a Great Tragedy written in 2007 by the Rev. David Hicks, and published by The General Board of Discipleship. Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting [Wikipedia] On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Peter Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Connecticut. Before driving to the school, he had shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their nearby Newtown home. After shooting the students and staff members, he committed suicide. The massacre was the second-deadliest school shooting in United States history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre; it was the second-deadliest mass murder at an American elementary school, after the Bath School bombings of 1927. Statement by Bishop Vono: I speak with a heavy heart as the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande prays for the families, children, teachers and community affected by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. While no one can adequately express words of sympathy nor explain these horrific actions, we strive to journey with this community and offer our hearts and prayers. One cannot escape the pain. We feel this tragedy in our hearts and bodies since we are all bound by mutual humanity, mutual pain, mutual tears. As a community, we offer prayers of consolation, prayers of peace, and pray that all those affected are surrounded by the consoling presence of a gentle and peaceful God. In the Christian faith, we have a knowing that children hold a special place in the arms of the Lord. That is of comfort as we walk with the nation over these next few days. It is also imperative, that we strive to change transform our communities from violence to peace. Where no individual nor family will awake worrying if a parent, child, friend or relative is safe. A world where love is boundless and violence is a thing of a long distance past. We pray as one family “The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25:8)” When my words fail, O Lord, may your Word speak. Homily by the Rev. Nicolette Papanek (reprinted with permission) When my words fail, O Lord, may your Word speak. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN. It is at times like this that people look to their priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders. The challenge this day is that those of us who are supposed to be religious leaders are rendered speechless as well. What does one say in the face of senseless violence? What does one say when tears fall freely and hearts are broken? When the innocent are slaughtered and no one has any explanation? Our chief pastor of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, in her call to prayer said this, “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 2,000 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” This is the vision our Hebrew Scripture reading give us from the prophet Zephaniah, and Paul speaks of in his Letter to the Philippians, a time to rejoice and exult. Yet today there is little room in our hearts to rejoice and exult, instead, we share the lament of those same prophets as we cry, “How long, O Lord, how long? John the Baptist leaps into our vision crying, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Bearing these fruits of repentance is what we are called to do. No longer can we stand idly by because those are someone else’s children. Those children in Connecticut are our children. Those children are the ones from whom we can no longer flee. They are the ones with hollow, frightened eyes, calling us to make their world a place of love and safety. And so, who among us will rise up as not only the prophets but also the healers of this day? The healers who will reach out to all those who are in pain and see violence as the only answer? Who among us will gather and pray, gather and sing, gather and work, for healing our hurting and broken world. No longer must we allow parents to weep for their children. No longer must we let children weep from hunger or cold or loneliness or fright or abuse. And while we work for these things, remember this: “Nothing is lost on the breath of God, nothing is lost for ever; God’s breath is love, and that love will remain, holding the world for ever. No feather too light, no hair too fine, no flower too brief in its glory; no drop in the ocean, no dust in the air, but is counted and told in God’s story.” AMEN.
IN THE 15 EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE Save the Date!! Youth and Young Adult Conference The Diocese of the Rio Grande presents The first Youth & Young Adult Leadership Conference, which will be April 5th through 7th at the Bosque Center in Albuquerque. The conference will be led by Mr. Matt Blank, who is the Youth Missioner for the Diocese of Texas. Matt’s leadership will guide participants to focus on start-up ministries to youth, as well as enhancing established youth programs. The conference also will present a special component dedicated to Campus and Young Adult Ministry. Details of costs and housing will follow soon,so please save the date on your calendars. Information requests and questions should be directed to the Rev. Canon Kathleene McNellis at 505.881.0636, kmcnellis@dioceserg.org.
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Jan 2013 - Diocese of the Rio Grande

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