One more time we awake to the news of violence. Reports come in, even as you read this, about violence that has caused death, life-changing injury and destruction of property and lives.
Violence which is borne of frustration, rooted in injustice and the violation of international law and in truth, the violation of human rights and human decency.
In the Name of the God of all creation, the violence must stop, regardless of where it comes from and to whom it is directed.
One more time The Episcopal Church stands to say that violence is not the way forward.
We say the expansion of Israeli settlements at the expense of Palestinian families must end. We say incitement which encourages violence must end. We say enough is enough.
One more time The Episcopal Church encourages the government of the United States and others who have influence, who are of goodwill and who genuinely seek peace to be partners in peacemaking…
… to bring about a negotiated settlement to the long-standing conflict which has consumed both Israelis and Palestinians.
One more time we find ourselves full of sorrow and sadness. We find ourselves grieving over the loss of life, destruction of homes and the fear that lives in the hearts of tens of thousands of innocent people.
We join all people of faith to offer up prayers for healing, wholeness, restoration and reconciliation.
And we pray God to grant wisdom and courage to all those in authority to seek peace and pursue it without delay, without excuses, without confusion and with only one agenda:
a negotiated and equitable agreement for peace between Israelis and Palestinians — once and for all.”
This is a tense and troubled moment, as we await the jury’s verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd. Please pray for the soul of George Floyd, for his family, and for everyone everywhere who has suffered because of the sin of racism and oppression.
Pray for all the people of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Pray for this nation that we may find the ways of both justice and healing. Pray for us all.
Whatever comes with the verdict, there is no celebration. Nothing will bring George Floyd back to his family or his community back to us. The struggle continues. If the verdict does not establish guilt, and even if it does, our pain persists and our grief goes on.
This evening, the President of the United States stood in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, lifted up a bible, and had pictures of himself taken. In so doing, he used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes.
This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us.
The bible teaches us that “God is love.” Jesus of Nazareth taught, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The prophet Micah taught that the Lord requires us to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”
We really do observe this #Pentecost in the midst of a pandemic. The pandemic of #COVID19 is real. It is painful. And we pray that scientists and researchers and all of the folk who are working hard will find a way to bring this pandemic to an end.
But there's another pandemic, not of the viral kind, but of the spiritual kind. It is a pandemic of the human spirit, when our lives are focused on ourselves, when the self becomes the center of the world and of the universe. And it may be even more destructive than a virus.
This pandemic of self-centeredness, if you will, has been the root cause of every humanly created evil that has ever hurt or harmed any child of God or even the earth itself.