DAWNetwork

The following is a statement by the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).


The familiar wave has washed over us – of disbelief followed by numbness followed by anguish. We’ve been this way before. The Virginia Tech tragedy is new in scope but not in kind. A broken individual has again visited personal pain on the world in an avalanche of destruction.

The words of Jeremiah 9 speak for us:
17 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; . . . .18 let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water . . .21 "Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares."

Our hearts break – again.

We know, of course, (in the words of William Sloane Coffin) that God’s heart was the first to break – for each one lost in the violence, for the injured, for the injured of spirit who will suffer the long-term psychic wounds of the day, and for the young man himself, so beyond the reach of help and hope.

We remember, as well, at moments such as this, that “God is our refuge and strength, our very help in time of trouble.” We see God’s spirit working through many to bring healing, comfort and hope. We find relief in the embrace of community which represents for us the enduring embrace of God.

That our community is a global one is made clear by the quick words of grief and dismay which we have received from our partners, The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK). The Rev. Yoon Kil-soo, General Secretary writes: we “share with our American brothers and sisters over the tragic loss of life and injury suffered in the terrible shooting incident at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Our pain deepened even further when we learned that this tragedy was inflicted by a Korean student. . . . Although no words can adequately comfort those who grieve, we pray and trust that our sisters and brothers will be upheld and strengthened by the unfailing and steadfast love of our God who binds us together as one family.”

As we go forward, we offer our heart-felt condolences to the family and friends of all those directly affected. We acknowledge that in times like this sorrow knows no national boundary or ethnic heritage. We are all children of God. And so we reach out to each other in the name of the One who is finally a God of resurrection and of life, in whom we hope.