A Pastoral Message From Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth

Lord, have mercy on us as we find ourselves in this space of grief once more.

At least three people are dead, four more are injured – including one toddler – as these words are typed. Another shooting. This one in Seattle, just blocks from our First United Methodist Church community.

A Sunday evening where folks were gathered to celebrate the diversity of God’s humanity through food and fun has now been shattered by another senseless act of gun violence.

I am saddened by this loss of life. I am also outraged by what gun violence does — not only to human bodies, but to families, communities, and our willingness to gather, celebrate, and enjoy one another.

Our prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those traumatized by Sunday’s shooting.

But I have to admit, as your bishop, I’m tired of writing these messages and I’m sure you’re tired of reading them. Words begin to feel hollow when they aren’t followed by action.
As United Methodists and followers of Christ we stand firm in our belief that violence is never the answer and that gun violence is an epidemic in this country. The only way this cycle can end is by addressing the policies and politics that continue to put our neighbors – toddlers – in harms way.

We must call upon elected officials, businesses, corporations, and community leaders to support policies and practices that reduce gun violence and make our neighborhoods and public gathering places safer. Every one of us has the capacity to do the loud and quiet work this kind of advocacy requires.
 
Prayer cannot become a substitute for the difficult work of change. That work also comes closer to home.

Our faith teaches us that every person is of sacred worth and that we belong to one another. When one suffers, we all suffer. Therefore, we must continue to show up.

We must show up for those who have lost loved ones.
We must show up for those who are injured and traumatized.
We must show up for those who feel alone and without hope.
We must show up for those who do not yet know—or have forgotten—that their lives have meaning.

We are already living in a time when so much tempts us to withdraw and isolate ourselves. Violence of this magnitude can deepen that temptation. It can cause us to hide, become suspicious of one another, and retreat from the public spaces where community is formed.
 
We must not surrender our belonging to fear. We cannot allow hatred, violence, or fear to determine how we move through the world or dictate how we show up with and for one another. Our desire to gather and our need for human connection are too strong—and too sacred—to be stripped from us by anyone’s grievance, ideology, hatred, or violent impulse.

Jesus calls us to be in dialogue with one another, to see the face of God in each other so that we might work together to make the kin-dom of God real here on earth.

In moments like these, we find ourselves searching in the dark for scripture that can maybe help us make sense of what’s happened. There is no making “sense” here, but I take comfort in this week’s lectionary from Romans 8: 26 & 27

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[a] with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

May we continue to reach for and teach the bold love of Christ in all that we do, because together is the only way forward,

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Bishop Cedrick D. Bridgeforth
GNW Episcopal Area