December 14, 2022
Silence. A breath. Confusion. Tears.
10 years ago, today in Sandy Hook, CT, we stopped. Silence. A breath. Confusion. Tears. As the news came across the airwaves, slowly, piece by piece, the story came together, and we fell apart. So many emotions and the reality that no words made any sense.
And we knew we needed each other. We gathered in our community churches and prayed, wept, and held one another as tightly as we could. Holding on. Holding tight.
Twenty-six lives taken by gun violence: 20 children and 6 educators, looking forward to the holidays and vacations, killed in an elementary school grounded in love, safety, and hope.
As then, we continue to offer prayers for those who died, their family members, friends, and community. We pray they will feel the Lord’s love and comfort holding them and offering God’s peace.
And we pray for ourselves; that we will continue to hold onto what we knew that day – we need one another, and we need our communities. Relationships matter, and we need to share the truth of God’s love with one another every day, not missing the opportunity to say I love you and thank you and you matter.
And we pray that God will give us the strength and courage to continue to be about the work of addressing gun violence in our communities and in this county; to commit ourselves to the work of changing our culture which settles too easily into violence and disregard for the other.
We have so much work to do. And we do it together and we do it with God’s love and courage holding us and calling us forward.
Silence, A breath, Confusion, Tears. Action. Let us be about the action of sharing God’s love and seeking to do so with boldness and joy; proclaiming in word and action the grace filled message of hope to each other, our communities, and the world.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello, Bishop Diocesan
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan
