Sadly, the phrase “thoughts and prayers” that we hear following the all-too-frequent mass shootings in this country has come to represent inaction. But we, as Christians, have a long faith tradition of lament. The prayer of lament, of crying out to God that something is not right, is a prayer of action. Lament acknowledges the sin, the grief, the pain and sorrow. We name gun violence for what it is and we call upon God and each other to turn things around. When we lament together we ask God’s grace to repent as a people from the violence that infects us all.
Attend a prayer vigil
The Diocese of Missouri is hosting a prayer vigil of lament and remembrance on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Louis and via livestream. This is a joint effort with the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and clergy from various faith traditions will participate. The prayer service will be led by The Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri; the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis; and a representative of ELCA Bishop Susan Candea. The Very Rev. Kathie Adams-Shepherd, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, will offer words of reflection.
The date for this prayer vigil of lament, hope, and resolve was chosen to fall near the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which took the lives of 26 people, most of them children, on December 14, 2012. Tragically, shootings have continued in schools, in neighborhoods, in homes, in numbers that don’t begin to touch on the pain and grief that families across our nation suffer from the gun violence epidemic we face. Firearms are now the leading cause of death among children in the Missouri and across the United States.
Host a Be SMART presentation
As one response to these tragic statistics, The Diocese of Missouri is offering the Be SMART program to all parishes in the diocese. Be SMART is a public service campaign launched nationally in 2015 to promote responsible gun ownership in order to reduce the deaths, injuries and trauma that can result when a child or teen is able to access a gun.
The Be SMART program is a 20 min presentation that covers safe storage, awareness of the role of guns in suicide, modeling good behavior, questions to ask, and how to talk to our kids about guns. Members of the diocesan Gun Violence Prevention Advisory committee are trained and ready to present the program and begin the discussion in your parish.
To learn more about Be SMART go to https://besmartforkids.org/. To sign up for a presentation email Rev. Mary Haggerty at gunsafety@diocesemo.org.
Host a letter writing campaign
On Gun Violence Awareness Sunday, we are also providing an opportunity for parishes to engage in Advocacy for reasonable gun laws. The facts are clear – as gun laws have gotten looser in the state of MO and around the country, homicides and suicides have increased. Missouri currently has the 7th highest rate of gun deaths in the United States. Access to guns without reasonable, sensible safeguards means more people, including children and teens, will die by firearm.
A problem in Missouri is that reasonable gun bills rarely see the light of day. Year after year, state representatives and senators file sensible gun bills but these bills are typically not assigned to committee for debate until just before the close of the session. That means the democratic process can’t take place – the process of a committee debating the bill, the public having a chance to enter the debate, and ultimately a vote on the house or senate floor.
So we are sponsoring a letter-writing campaign to the State Speaker of the House and the President of the State Senate asking for the 2024 session, that bills addressing the following areas be assigned to committee in a timely manner so that the democratic process can unfold.
- Universal background checks for gun purchases
- Age requirements to buy and carry a firearm
- Permits to carry
- “Red Flag” laws
- Safe firearm storage requirements
Every congregation in the Diocese is invited to host a letter writing event on Sunday, Dec. 10 around your morning services. Before the service, after the service, between services, during coffee hour or adult forum, however it is most convenient and effective for your congregation. Each parish in the Diocese received a packet at convention that includes pre-printed letters to both the Speaker and the Senate President with envelopes and preprinted labels and instructions. You just have to supply the stamps.
This campaign is simply asking our legislative leaders to allow debate to take place in the House and Senate around sensible laws that will keep guns out of the wrong hands and save lives. We can’t address the problem of gun violence in our state if we are not even allowed to have a conversation about it in the legislative setting.
Gun violence is a complex, emotional, particularly American problem that we as Christians cannot ignore. Our Gun Violence Prevention Sunday activities and the Be SMART program throughout 2024 are opportunities for us to advocate together for the dignity of all human beings. May we have the courage to not shy away from this difficult topic and to publicly announce our stubborn hope in the promise of The Reign of God, where our swords will be beat into plowshares.