August 10, 2012

ELGIN, IL – Church of the Brethren leaders have joined others in the Christian community in expressing sorrow and calling for prayer following shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin this past Sunday.

Statements have been made by Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan Noffsinger, along with Belita Mitchell who is a Brethren leader in Heeding God's Call, and Doris Abdullah, the denomination's representative to the United Nations.

Noffsinger shared in the grief of the families affected in this act of violence. He also expressed frustration with repeated incidents in recent weeks, referring to the shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., as well as the daily incidents of handgun violence across the country.

"Loss of life through gun violence occurs every day in American society, one person at a time," Noffsinger said. "Now we've had two larger events. How many people have to die in America before we come to the realization that there is a problem with assault weapons and handguns in our country? It is time for church and society to call for a thorough re-examination of the laws governing the purchase and ownership of guns and munitions."

An "Ending Gun Violence" resolution from the denomination's Mission and Ministry Board is just the most recent call for Brethren to join with other Christians to work against handgun violence in particular. The statement was made in 2010 in support of the National Council of Churches Governing Board and includes links to relevant statements issued in previous years by the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. Find it at http://www.brethren.org/about/policies/2010-gun-violence.pdf .

BRETHREN representative to the UN calls for prayer

A request for people of faith to join in prayer vigils with the Sikh community has been shared by Doris Abdullah, the Church of the Brethren's representative to the United Nations.

"In response to the awful violent attack at their place of worship...one request calls for the faith community to show solidarity through prayer vigils," Abdullah said. "I hope that we can extend their request to our greater community."

Abdullah also chairs an NGO committee related to the UN, the Human Rights Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism. She noted that the Sikhs have recently joined the group. "I have extended personal sympathy to them on the tragedy," she reported. "Finding ‘common ground' among the various faith traditions and beliefs is another one of the challenges put forward to civil societies by the UN to help eliminate racism."

Abdullah shared a "United Sikh" newsletter that is calling the interfaith community to show solidarity by holding prayer vigils in their own places of worship. (Find her own prayer response below.)

Mitchell speaks on behalf of Heeding God's Call, Harrisburg

Brethren minister and past Annual Conference moderator Belita Mitchell was quoted this week in a press release from Heeding God's Call. She pastors First Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg, Pa., and coordinates the Heeding God's Call chapter there.

Heeding God's Call has been working against gun violence on the streets of America's cities since it's beginnings at a meeting of the Historic Peace Churches (Brethren, Mennonites, and Quakers) in Philadelphia some years ago.

"We at Heeding God's Call grieve for those killed and injured and their families, friends, neighbors, and co-religionists," Mitchell said. "Americans believe that houses of worship should be places of safety and refuge, not places of carnage and terror. But, as long as we allow people intent on mayhem to gain guns with ease, often illegally, houses of worship will be as dangerous as so many neighborhoods and communities are now in our country."

Heeding God's Call is rapidly growing, the release said, and now includes active chapters in Northwest and Northeast Philadelphia, on the Main Line, in Harrisburg, Pa., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C. For more about the organization go to http://www.heedinggodscall.org .

HAVE mercy on us: A prayer response

The Sikh community is calling on the interfaith community to show solidarity with them by holding prayer vigils in our own places of worship. I do not know if my church will hold a prayer vigil. So I will pray my prayer and stand in silent worship in my home. – Doris Abdullah, Church of the Brethren representative to the United Nations and chair of the Human Rights Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance

"And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore" (Matthew 13:2).

PRAYER

O Lord, you are in the boat, and we are standing on the shore. Have mercy on us, our failure to respond to the violent hatred that darts across our land against those who worship differently, or who are not perceived to be of pure European origins, or who are poor and uneducated.

If only we could drown all the hate in the waters of love that you offer to the people. Let us not go on watching you, Lord Jesus, from the shoreline. Let us abandon our fears and swim out to thank you for a life everlasting. Swim out and thank you for the oldest of those killed, 84 years of age. Thank you for the brave policeman who had been shot eight times but waved away help for himself so other injured could be helped. And thank you for all the lives that were saved from the gunman on Sunday morning.

Thank you for another day to show that in solidarity prayer, good fruits without the blemish of hate can come forth. Lord have mercy on us as we pray. Amen

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

Newsline: Church of the Brethren New Service