"We come together in deep sorrow for what has been lost..."
By Rev. Barbara J. Pescan
The Unitarian Church of Evanston, IL
July 28, 2008
We come together in deep sorrow for what has been lost:
Greg McKendry, usher, foster father, who shielded others with his body and died;
Linda Kraeger, visiting from another nearby UU [Unitarian Universalist] church, who was in the process of adopting one of the children of the church, and who died in the evening yesterday;
lost are the peace and sense of safety of their families and friends, and of the other seven who were shot and their friends and families;
lost are the joy and peace of the 200 members of the congregation at church to see their youth in a play;
lost was the quiet and peace of a Sabbath morning in Knoxville, Tennessee;
lost was the sense of safety of a university town once again shattered by violence, ignorance and madness;
lost for a time, once again, is our own sense that we are safer here than others are in war torn countries, or on the South Side of Chicago, or in visibly troubled homes and schools;
We come together in gratitude:
For Greg McKendry, who as usher yesterday was the first person shot and whose courage probably prevented greater loss;
for the adults of the congregation who immediately told people to get out of the sanctuary;
for the acts of those present who tackled the shooter before he could hurt or kill more people;
for the Knoxville Police Department personnel who arrived within five minutes of the 911 call;
for the Red Cross and volunteers who brought teddy bears for the children, and for members of neighboring Second Presbyterian Church who brought food and juice for the witnesses and investigators who would be at the church for hours putting together what had happened, and who sheltered the children in their building;
for the UUA [Unitarian Universalist Association] Trauma Response Team;
for Rev. Chris Buice who came home from North Carolina to be with his congregation;
for the UUA staff who responded immediately with their prayers and presence;
and for the support of the United Church of Christ youth at their national youth event happening in Knoxville, some of whom with friends in the TVUUC congregation, who sent a huge poster with well wishes to the congregation, and who paused in their activities to pray for the congregation.
We come together as people of faith:
Faith in the capacity of good people to help each other move through tragedy and loss with hope and with a sense of our wholeness;
We trust the resiliency of the human spirit to take even senseless violence and loss and live through it far beyond what we thought we could do;
Faith in ourselves, our friends and our families to continue to speak to the good in others, to act out of love rather than fear, and to appeal to the highest and best in us, rather than the morbid, the tragic or the fearful;
Faith that the good will prevail—not in every instance, and not this time for all times, but, when violence and madness reveal themselves part of the human condition—prevail again and again to restore balance, to revivify our commitment to peace in the heart, in the home, in the town, in the nation and in the world. For it is this faith that will keep human communities engaged with each other; it is this faith that will keep us from giving any more power to evil and injustice and apathy; it is this faith in the possibilities of goodness that will keep us moving toward each other in compassion.
We come together in sorrow for what has been lost; we come together in gratitude for all those who act quickly and wisely in times of violence and tragedy; we come together with faith in the capacity of good people to help each other move through tragedy and loss with hope and a sense of their own wholeness.
Last updated on Tuesday, November 18, 2008.
