Dear Sisters and brothers:
Senseless violence fueled by hate has again resulted in death, injury and grief. This time, a group of Americans gathered to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion, were murdered as they worshipped. Has our country lost its collective mind? It seems that as a people we have lost the ability to disagree and yet still live together. Hatred and division are destroying us. The lack of intelligent gun laws is killing us. Let us pray and then let us act for change.
Let us pray for our nation:
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Let us also pray for the victims of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh (and all victims of antisemitism):
Joyce Fienberg, 75
Richard Gottfried, 65
Rose Mallinger, 97
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66
Cecil Rosenthal, 59
David Rosenthal, 54
Bernice Simon, 84
Sylvan Simon, 86
Daniel Stein, 71
Melvin Wax, 88
Irving Younger, 69
God, filled with mercy, dwelling in the heavens’ heights, bring proper rest beneath the wings of your Divine Presence, amid the ranks of the holy and the pure, illuminating like the brilliance of the skies the souls of our beloved and our blameless who went to their eternal place of rest. May You who are the source of mercy shelter them beneath Your wings eternally, and bind their souls among the living, that they may rest in peace. And let us say: Amen.
Bishop Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr.
10th Bishop of the Diocese of Michigan