TRAGEDY IN CHARLSTON TO DAY WE MORN   The murder of nine innocent people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC is deeply troubling, shaking a nation to its core and devastating communities all a…

TRAGEDY IN CHARLSTON

TO DAY WE MORN

The murder of nine innocent people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC is deeply troubling, shaking a nation to its core and devastating communities all across this country. In such times as these, it is important for people of faith to gather together, to express the raw anguish of their spirit, and to be pray and work together toward a better future.

Ecumenical Theological Seminary (ETS) will hold a public time for prayer, reflection, and testimony on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6PM. RSVP at http://bit.ly/Charleston2015. The President and Dean of the Seminary, along with members of the Faculty, will be present to offer meditations on the events of the day, and welcome anyone who wishes to come to offer their own voices as we pray together, sing together, and worship together.

On June 18th, President Murray published the following words, which he wanted to share with the ETS community:

Many woke up to the news of the mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. When, when, when are we going to wake up from this centuries-long national nightmare of horrific racism? When are we going to live into our humanity? Right now, black American citizens can't walk down the street, play by a pool, or pray in church without the shadow of violence and death at the hands of white citizens and police constantly, constantly strangling any hope at living peaceably, breathing easily.

America, we've got to do better than being the Land of the Oppressed and the Home of the Terrorized.

A white individual took offense to my taking my fellow white Americans to task in light of the shootings:

"How does an innocent law abiding white citizen who condemns the actions of a few whom share his "color" respond?" My answer: By not getting over-concerned that people of our color are being called out to be responsible to act and cry out and demand justice and health and peace for American citizens who literally are dying at the hands of people who look like us.

It's terrorism on our own soil, meted out by members of one race upon another.

American citizens are murdered at the hands of other American citizens, but the ones who are dying seem consistently to be black and the ones who are killing seem consistently to be white. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, but the people who are dying and their families who are grieving and their communities which are suffering unabatedly: They are more uncomfortable than you.

This is a time in which we must not avert our eyes from the dead, but in which also we must be sure to dwell with the responsibilities of we who live. Our nation must not continue this narrative of pain, and seek instead the possibilities of hope.

But hope must be based upon something real, and not just empty promises of a better future.

So our responsibility in the church is to work together, to refuse the all too common segregations of the worship hour.

Let us actively seek our Christian sisterhood and brotherhood together, to be the body of Christ together and never apart, to seek peace and unity by building and supporting neighborhoods and generations that engender peace and unity.

I pray for the saints of Mother Emanuel, for the people of Charleston, and for the citizens of the United States. There is holy work ahead, and let us not avert our eyes from the consequences when that holy work does not change hearts from hatred to love.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Butler Murray

President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Preaching

Ecumenical Theological Seminary

 Sunday, June 21, 2015                THE REVERNED DR. GERALDINE DUDLEY-HARRIS- EVANGELIST