June 17, 2022
On the shooting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Vestavia Hills, Alabama
Dear East Tennessee Friends,
I am writing to you on the morning after the shooting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. At present, reports are indicating that two people were killed and one was wounded. This is the latest in mass shootings across our country which have targeted persons of color in a grocery store, children in an elementary school, medical workers in a hospital, to name only a few.
A house of worship is a refuge, a sanctuary, a place where, when we arrive there, vulnerable humans can be our true selves before the eternal God. We go there unguarded.
When a house of worship becomes a site of gun violence, a sacred place has been defiled, profaned. Pray for the victims of last night’s shooting and all those who were present at St. Stephen’s. Also, pray for all those who have ever known St. Stephen’s as a house of worship, sanctuary, refuge, home. For those, too, even miles away, a place of prayer was violated.
Peace,
+ Brian