Minute for Mission: National Gun Violence Remembrance Day

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Artwork by: Blake Johnson

Today is National Gun Violence Remembrance Day, and the month of June is set aside as Gun Violence Awareness Month. You could be forgiven for wondering if these observances are necessary. After all, the United States is the only country in the world with more guns than citizens, and we experience per capita gun deaths at a rate just slightly worse than Panama and Iraq. Given the obscene amount of gun violence that surrounds us, do we need a special day set aside to remember or to be aware of the gun violence that surrounds us? If we settle for simple awareness, probably not. 

But if we understand today’s prompt to remember as a disciplined awareness that requires us to face up to the tens of thousands of Americans that die each year from firearms — tens of thousands of souls overflowing with sacred value and beloved by God — then our remembrance and our awareness can take on an important theological purpose and meaning. In remembering the immensity of this loss, we honor the victims and the survivors they leave behind who will never be fully whole. In remembering, we can refuse to become inured to the violence that surrounds us. In remembering, we can stoke the flame of holy anger that moves us to refuse to accept our current regime of firearms as one that we must simply endure.

If we do that, then we have an opportunity to remember in a way that stirs awareness in ourselves and in our communities. That sort of awareness is not inert. It’s the sort of awareness that encourages us to speak plainly about the absurdity of our idolatry of guns. It’s the sort of awareness that moves us to call our representatives, to mobilize our neighbors, to vote for the commonsense gun reforms that vast majorities of Americans approve of. In other words, awareness can be put into practice; when it is, we call it witness and the ministry.

(This prayer and the artwork can be found with others like it from our new gun violence prayerbook “How Long, Oh Lord?” and copies are available through the PC[USA] store here.)

Dr. Andrew J. Peterson, Representative for Peacemaking, Office of Public Witness, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Let us join in prayer for:

Andrew Rodriguez, Portfolio Credit Underwriter, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
David Loleng, Vice President, Church Financial Literacy & Leadership and Stewardship Education, Presbyterian Foundation     

Let us pray:

Prayer by the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow:

Today I pray for politicians, policy makers and legislative bodies who have the power to address gun violence in the United States.

They offer “thoughts and prayers” 

without concrete action 

so even the most heartfelt condolences 

are received as disingenuous and hollow

God, I plead that your spirit intercede into the world in miraculous ways 

In halls of power

In committees

In localities

In courthouses

Give them the courage to risk positions of power

Give them wisdom to find solutions that make sense

Give them the fortitude to stand up to powers that will fight them

And give them reassurance that they are doing what is 

beneficial to the Body Politic and the Common Good.

God, public servants are not saviors, but partners in the

realization of what can be

a future when children can learn without active shooter drills

a future when people can gather without the ever-present specter of gun violence lurking about

a future when guns are not so desired or accessible

a future when the response to death by gun is not more guns.

a future when, after the next tragedy strikes,

“thoughts and prayers” are offered with truth and integrity and they are received as intended

because action has proven those words to be true.

For this future, I pray.

Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Webinar explores Scripture as a response to suffering and gun violence

Educator, author and activist Parker Palmer says that violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering. A recent webinar offered by the Office of Public Witness on gun violence and Christian ethics sought to explore, in the words of presenter the Rev. Dr. Brent A. Strawn, “how Scripture gives us something to do with our suffering.”

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The Rev. Dr. Brent A. Strawn

Strawn is the D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School, with a secondary appointment at the Duke University School of Law. The webinar was part of a series lamenting gun violence and giving Presbyterians tools to advocate for an end to it. In 2022, the 225th General Assembly declared 2022–32 the Decade to End Gun Violence.”

“The best questions can’t be answered, but they have to be asked,” Strawn told those on the call. “Denial is not an option and despair is not inevitable.”

Strawn identified mass shootings in recent years that are etched in his memory, including the 1984 mass murder at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California, near where the then-13-year-old Strawn was living. Following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Strawn appeared on CNN the following day to offer commentary from a perspective of faith. “I remember the heaviness of it, thinking about the gravity of the young victims,” he said. “Even that wasn’t enough to catalyze a massive overhaul” in the nation’s gun control laws.

Among the data surrounding guns in the United States, as Strawn pointed out:

• 44% of Americans, and 57% of African Americans, know of someone who has been shot.
• Guns are 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide attempt than in self-defense.
• 85% of suicide attempts by gun are successful; 5% of other methods are successful.
• A person stands a 244% increased risk of suicide if they have a gun.
• More Americans die by a shooting as by an auto accident.
• The nation has 60 million more guns than people.
• 4.6 million children and teens live in homes with unsecured loaded guns.

Strawn offered some insights on violence that he teaches his students:

• We are violent and war-like. “Our violence is more graphic, more brutal and more effective than biblical violence. The biblical world had no long-range missiles or satellites,” he said. “If you were fast enough, you could run away to fight another day.” Today we “send enormous amounts of time and money entertaining ourselves with graphic, gruesome, extensive violence. We say we are shocked by biblical violence, but we project our violence on others, including the Bible, especially the Old Testament.”
• The unity of the Bible’s two testaments. “I wish it were the case that the New Testament solved the problems of violence, but it is not so,” he said. The New Testament “has its fair share of violence, unparalleled in the Book of Revelation.”
• The Old Testament also contains strategies of containment and therapeutic aspects, Strawn said. One is the account of Rahab shielding the spies ahead of the taking of Jericho. A few chapters later, the Gibeonites trick the Israelites into making a treaty, which God says must be honored. “Violence in the Old Testament is not as realistically achieved as it might seem. It is limited and limitable,” Strawn said. As for therapeutic aspects, Strawn pointed to some of the Bible’s “brutal cursing songs” such as Psalm 139 (“I hate them with a perfect hatred”) which allow “ancient Israelites and us to unburden ourselves of these violent sentiments and give them over to the Lord,” Strawn said. “This honesty about violence is crucial to recovery from violence. Writing it down helps.”
• Expertise and wisdom are required, and transforming violence via prayer “is something else to do with our violence,” including “being candid about our ill wishes.” He noted that “our enemies’ bodies can’t handle those blows, but God’s body can.”

“We need religious solutions, not just political ones,” Strawn said. “The church can be another way of being in the world.”

“Imagine a world with less gun violence,” Strawn said. “Is that a pipe dream, or is it the church’s alternative witness?”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Amalia Cottrell, Archives Technician, Presbyterian Historical Society, Interim Unified Agency
Emily Cowser, Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Interim Unified Agency          

Let us pray:

Our Father, we offer you praise that you reveal our true capacities for speech, leadership, and service to our families, church and community. We ask that you enable us all to find our voice to love the poor, advocate for justice and lead in righteousness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Speaker Dr. Angela Carpenter’s webinar explores gun violence and Christian ethics

During the Office of Public Witness’ new series on gun violence and Christian ethics, which recently launched via a webinar, Dr. Angela Carpenter of Hope College in Holland, Michigan, began her presentation by helping the more than 75 people in attendance think about their fears.

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Dr. Angela Carpenter

Specifically, she looked at Luke’s account of Jesus being tested in the wilderness. “I learned this story as a child, and I was always a little confused by it,” Carpenter said. “As a child, I thought, why would it be a sin for Jesus to use his power to get something to eat? Worshiping Satan was not something he would want to do. And casting himself off the temple to summon the angels? It made no sense to me.”

Years later, “I have come to think of this as having profound insight for who we are as human beings,” she said. “The commonality is Jesus is tempted to refuse authentic humanity.”

Carpenter called fear “a paradigmatic sin.” Some of us “erase human vulnerability” by turning to such things as firearms as a means of personal protection. “I do not want to suggest that gun owners are particularly prone to the sin of fear,” she said. Gun ownership is instead “a manifestation of behavior patterns much broader than that.”

In the United States, 40% of adults live in a house with a gun. There are about 378 million guns in circulation, more than one for every adult and child living in this country. Two-thirds of gun owners cite “personal protection” as their reason for owning a gun. Polling from several years ago showed most people owned guns for hunting or for sport, Carpenter said.

Among Christians, 36% of white evangelicals and 35% of white mainline Protestants own a gun, compared to 25% of the general population. Thirty-seven percent of evangelicals favor stricter gun laws, while 48% of mainline Protestants, 64% of Catholics and 76% of Black Protestants favor such laws.

Carpenter then turned her attention to guns, fear and Christian nationalism. She called Christian nationalism “a response to fear,” and cited factors including changing culture, the role of men in society, the number and status of white people, crime that’s real or perceived, and the shortage of resources, including housing and jobs.

Many proponents of Christian nationalism are also strong supporters of the Second Amendment and gun ownership, Carpenter noted. “The notion is that Jesus wants Christians to have cultural, political and violent power,” according to Carpenter, and the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol is a memorable example, “with all sorts of Christian symbols.”

But gun owners and Christian nationalists “do not have a monopoly on fear,” she said. Fear dominates our culture. Social media algorithms heighten people’s fear, she said, and fear is further weaponized by those who seek more political power.

Jesus’ life “displays authentically human love, vulnerable love,” Carpenter said. During his temptation in the wilderness, “he is rejecting the back-up plans that might be available to him. He enters into the full vulnerability of being human.”

Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane — to “remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done” — is the “final rejection of a back-up option,” Carpenter said, quoting this from theologian Herbert McCabe: “When we encounter Jesus, in whatever way we encounter him, he strikes a chord in us; we resonate to him because he shows the humanity that lies more hidden in us — the humanity of which we are afraid. He is the human being that we dare not be. He takes the risks of love which we recognize as risks and so for the most part do not take.”

In addition to our activism in issues including gun violence, “we can try to show what it looks like to love in the midst of fear, to love without back-up plans,” Carpenter said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Kelly Riley, Executive Vice President, Plan Operations, Board of Pensions
Leslie Rizzo, Production Clerk, Hubbard Press, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we pray for those who are picking up the pieces of their lives. We pray that out of chaos hope will rise, and we offer ourselves humbly in service. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Grieving mothers’ band together to foster healing after losing loved ones to gun violence

Members of the national SDOP West Task Force enjoy being in community with
Mothers Organized for Peace and Healing. (Photo courtesy of SDOP)

After the Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith’s 24-year-old son Daniel Sadou Brown was killed in a senseless act of gun violence in 2018, Smith began to meet other mothers who had suffered the same kind of heartrending loss and trauma.

“I heard their stories of how they had turned their pain into purpose by serving the community and other moms but were doing this great work out of their own pockets,” Smith said. “The powers that be in the city had not shared or allocated funds to assist with this level of trauma.”

That didn’t sit right with Smith, so she decided to use her grant-writing and relationship-building skills to create Mothers Organized for Peace and Healing (MOPH), a partner of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP).

The MOPH coalition was formed in spring 2023 to pursue partnerships “with funders interested in working with mothers leading healing and change in the community for families impacted by gun violence and other forms of community violence,” Smith said.

“The funding allows the women that are already doing the work to really expand the work,” she added.

MOPH is the lead project of the Southern California Community Empowerment Corporation (SCCEC), which serves families in low- to middle-income communities that have been affected by community violence.

“SCCEC focuses its work on education, economic empowerment, community engagement and youth development,” Smith said.

During the 2024 Thanksgiving and Christmas season, MOPH was active in a number of ways. For example, it hosted a tree-lighting service that included a grief counselor and a chaplain.

“We focus the holiday season on providing services and healing opportunities, gatherings, toy giveaways, food giveaways … because, as you would imagine, this is the hardest time for many families,” Smith said.

The coalition provides solace, support and discussion opportunities to grieving people, whether they’ve lost a child recently or the tragedy that occurred several years ago.

“Healing, in these cases, is not a destination; it's a journey,” Smith said. “Just having a place, or places, where people can come together, that is part of the healing work.”

The coalition’s offerings also include online sessions. “Our hope and healing sessions are absolutely free,” Smith said. “Anybody can log in, join us, and then the mental health expert is actually giving data-based- driven tools and information that families can use in their process of healing.”

The coalition is grateful to SDOP for providing funding but also for being a source of encouragement.

Members of the coalition “work together to build a funnel of support for this unique demographic and community,” Smith said. “SDOP has poured into this funnel and has brought hope, encouragement and funding to an overlooked issue in South LA.”

The SDOP Western Region National Team has been impressed with MOPH.

“I have never met a group of mothers who are hurting on the inside due to the loss of their children but still have the heart, mind (and) dedication to reach out to other mothers who also suffered the same type of loss in order to build a community of trust and support,” said team member David Johnson, who is a minister.

Smith explained it this way: “When I’m with these other moms, we can talk. We can talk about the memories. We can cry. We can express frustration, and no one is like, ‘Are you done yet?’ And you also don't feel like you have to cover up your tears and mask your emotion, because you're amongst peers.”

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)        

Let us join in prayer for:

• Peter Maher, Vice President & Managing Director, Investments, Board of Pensions 
• Steve Maier, Network Support Engineer, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

Faithful God, even amid tragedy and suffering, you abide with your people. As you continue to heal our wounds and strengthen our spirits, draw us closer to you and closer to one another, so that all your people may be one. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Presbyterian pastor calls for end to gun violence

‘Enough is enough’

August 7, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Angela Johnson is pastor of Grace Hope

Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

A Louisville pastor recently summed up the nation’s gun violence crisis with a three-word refrain: “Enough is enough.”

The Rev. Dr. Angela Johnson, pastor of Louisville’s Grace Hope Presbyterian Church, delivered a brief but powerful sermon during a morning chapel service for employees of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

During the gathering, Johnson raised troubling questions about the state of the country where gun violence has led to more than 7,000 deaths this year.

“Have safety and security become things of the past?” Johnson asked. “What has happened to the idea of God’s beloved community? Have our cities become the degenerate cities of Isaiah’s time where justice and righteousness have been chased out of town by the right to bear arms and by neighborhood beefs? Enough is enough.”

Johnson had opened her message by listing Columbus, Ohio; Rock Hill, South Carolina; and Lower Santan Village, Arizona. Those are three of the 14 places where shootings had occurred since June 1 that involved more than one person being shot at one time.

“Enough is enough,” she said.

Johnson would continue to repeat that phrase and to mention more city names, including her own, noting that at least 16 people were shot recently during one weekend in Louisville.

“Enough is enough,” she said.

Taking the sermon beyond statistics, she spoke of societal failings, including delighting too much in personal privilege and privileged dollars that go to rebellious princes who fail to take care of orphans and widows. She also spoke of the real-life impact that gun violence has on those it touches.

“Non-Violence” by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd is exhibited at the 

United Nations. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“The slogan ‘Guns don’t kill people. People kill people’ pales in the faces of countless family members who have lost a loved one to gun violence and rends the souls of those who have been traumatized as family members, as victims and witnesses of these mass shootings, the aftereffects of such drama, living on in their dreams and memories,” Johnson said.

In addition to mentioning recent shootings, she recalled how in April 1999 she was relaxing on the couch when regular television programming was interrupted by breaking news of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. She said she could not understand how such a “horrific thing” could happen, and she recalled how her mind turned to “our own two kids in two different schools and thinking about all the ‘what ifs.’ Since then, according to one source, there have been 404 more school shootings. Enough is enough.”

Though groups such as Moms Demand Action and No More Red Dots are striving to prevent such tragedies, “there is more work that needs to be done, working from a different direction but with the same goal of reducing gun violence,” Johnson said.

One such effort is the Guns to Gardens initiative, which makes it possible to “beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks by taking unwanted guns, using a chop saw, and turning them into gardening tools, so they will no longer exist as weapons of possible harm,” she said, “so that our youth will not solve their issues with guns anymore, but with tools of compassion, so that our young adults will not use guns to prove their position in our communities but with tools of respect, so that older adults will not live in fear of leaving their homes but will enjoy the tools of peace.”

Lastly, “nation will not lift up sword against nation and we will study war no more because enough is enough,” she concluded.

To review and learn more about gun violence resources from the PC(USA), go here. Your congregation may be interested in applying for a Decade to End Gun Violence grant or attending the James Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Angela Johnson calls for end of gun violence

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ronnika Muhammad, Payroll Specialist, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Jacquelyn Muir, Manager, Client & Admin Services, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Healing God, thank you for giving us health and strength to serve you. Thank you especially for all who work to help others in times of crisis or weaknesses. We ask for spiritual wholeness for all associated that we may rejoice together to sharing your love through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Sandy Hook Promise addresses gun violence by changing culture

Members of the gun violence prevention group appear on Presbyterian Peacemaking webinar

August 4, 2020

Nicole Hockley

Halfway through her opening statement on a recent episode of “Standing Our Holy Ground,” the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s yearlong webinar series about how the church can respond to gun violence, Nicole Hockley of Sandy Hook Promise cited some extraordinary achievements by her group.

“The signs of impending violence are there if you know what to look for,” said Hockley, the managing director of the group. “So, we started creating PSAs and programs to teach people, teach students how to recognize signs in their peers, how to recognize them on social media, because the adults in their lives were not on the same platform as the kids. The kids are seeing things and they don’t really know what to do about it. They want to help.

“And we’ve had tremendous success since we first launched our very first program as a tip sheet in a church basement in Ohio. At the end of 2014, in the last several years since then, we’ve reached over 15,000 schools, we trained over 13 million adults and children on how to recognize these signs and take actions.”

That success, she said, came after a staggering failure.

Sandy Hook Promise was formed in the wake of the December 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 28 people died, including 20 children ages 5 to 7.

At first, the group went the route a lot of gun-violence prevention groups go: trying to pass legislation. But a few months later, a background check bill supported by parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre failed to pass the United States Senate, prompting then-President Barack Obama to say, “this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.”

It left Hockley, who lost her 6-year-old son Dylan in the Sandy Hook massacre, wondering what to do. Background checks, she said, were “low-hanging fruit” — a move supported by more than 90% of voters, but vigorously opposed by the National Rifle Association.

They embarked on a lot of study and a lot of listening to people to learn about the barriers to gun-violence prevention from a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

“When we looked at all of the polarizing issues that have plagued our country, you know, from the Civil War all the way up, we thought, ‘OK, these are things that we can learn from how to find common ground, how to change the narrative and focus on what’s important in a non-confrontational way that everyone can engage in and be part of,’” Hockley said. “And we coupled that knowledge with what we learned by studying other school shootings and mass shootings, about the fact that most people, before they commit an act of self-harm or violence towards others, tell someone else or give off a sign.”

Rev. Donald Gaffney

It is a long process, Hockley said, that starts a long time before someone picks up a gun to commit an act of violence, to create a culture that discourages that behavior and recognizes the factors that may foster it.

Moderator the Rev. Carl Horton, coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, observed similarities between the group’s approach and faith: “I think about faith formation, and we in churches do a lot of … upstream work with folks helping people learn what does it really mean to be a Christian? What is the Christian act like? What are the behaviors of Christians?”

But that doesn’t mean Christianity is monolithic in behavior or beliefs, even on issues such as guns and violence, as the Rev. Donald Gaffney, author of “Common Ground: Talking about Gun Violence in America” (published by Westminster John Knox Press) and a Sandy Hook elementary alum, said.

“I have heard recently, particularly within my denomination, that we Christians are diverse but not divided,” the Disciples of Christ minister said. “And as such, we need to embrace that diversity at all levels. And so how do we how do we do that? It starts by listening respectfully. And as we listen, seeing Christ in the other person and acknowledging that that other person is beloved of God and is speaking in good conversation. Hopefully, we are vulnerable to each other.”

Rich Copley, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tamron Keith, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Stephen Keizer, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Dear God, we thank you for leading us to love you in deed, truth and action. Help us to stem the flow of guns to those who should not have them. Help all people who love you to join to heed your call to end gun violence. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - How Presbyterian churches and other faith groups can combat gun violence

Panelists offer advice during ‘Standing Our Holy Ground’ webinar

February 19, 2020

Like millions of Americans, many people of faith support gun violence prevention. (Contributed photo)

A decade ago, the advocacy group Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence helped to shut down a controversial gun shop in Philadelphia.

With the involvement of many different faith communities, “we brought nine months’ worth of public attention to this particular gun shop, which was selling lots of guns that ended up in crime and so on,” said Bryan Miller, the group’s executive director. “We eventually basically embarrassed ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) into closing the gun shop.”

It’s an example of actions that faith-based organizations can take to try to stop gun violence. From neighborhood shootings to school-related incidents, guns continue to claim thousands of lives in the United States.

“Gun violence is a public health epidemic that impacts our communities, our congregations and our members — whether they know it or not,” said the Rev. Margery Rossi, who’s the moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s Gun Violence Prevention Working Group.

Rossi, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Wappingers Falls, New York, recently spoke during a segment of the Standing Our Holy Ground webinar series. The webinar (available at bit.ly/36Pbn5h) also featured Miller and other experts who provided examples and suggestions about how to mobilize against gun violence and its devastating effects.

The series, offered by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in collaboration with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, is designed to challenge people of faith to bring about change.

Panelists who spoke during the webinar included the Rev. Roy Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in North Bethesda, Maryland, and Corneilius Scott, founder of the Family Survivor Network in Baltimore.

During the webinar, Miller stressed the importance of contacting legislators and letting them know that the faith-based community is not limited to “radical right Christians.”

“Many, many people of faith, and in my view the majority of people of faith, actually believe in gun violence prevention,” he said. “Unfortunately, the American faith community has not been as active in gun violence prevention as it has been for every other national social movement for change in American history. We want to be a little spark, if you will, to that faith community so that it grows in its involvement with gun-violence prevention.”

Before implementing a plan of action, it’s important to get your church’s session involved, said Howard, who has many years of experience working for change.

“You, as an active member of the church or an active pastor, elder leader of the church, can only do so much,” Howard said. “But when you have your entire leadership team engaged with you, and you’ve done the hard work of praying, of educating yourself and then doing the pastoral work of engaging and organizing, the effects of this in the wider community are going to be so much greater than if it’s one or two or even three people kind of working together.”

Actions that can be taken include writing letters; requesting personal meetings with local, state and federal officials; hosting forums; meeting with other members of the congregations for prayer and conversation; and working with other congregations and the community on initiatives, he said.

Miller promoted the idea of erecting “memorials to the lost,” featuring T-shirts with the name, age and date of death of people felled by guns. The memorials provide a way to draw publicity and reach the public.

Scott stressed the importance of not just focusing on where guns come from but on the social-emotional issues surrounding gun violence as well, especially in urban areas.

“Listening and learning and privileging the voices of the disinherited, having a trauma-centered focus, and three, broadening our focus to improve social-emotional understanding is critical,” he said.

Rossi noted that the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship works with churches around the country and can serve as a resource for those looking to connect with potential partners. It also offers a congregational toolkit on its website.

But you don’t have to be an expert to act, she said. “If you have a feeling that there is something wrong with having 40,000 people a year die by guns, that is enough to give you a platform to do something about it.”

Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Deana Stuart, Office of the General Assembly
Shawnda Styles, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Holy God, heal our broken world. May our responsive prayers and actions be rooted in your love and help rebuild lives and communities. Lord, bind us together in your hope and peace. Amen.