Deputy Diary: Remembering the Emanuel 9 at General Convention

Andrea McKellar:

While we are far away in Salt Lake City, our hearts and minds are still very much with the people of South Carolina. Tonight will mark one week since the horrific shooting of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. It was very hard for me to leave Charleston while my city is grieving. But we remember that we are here to do important work. General Convention is a place where we can make change in The Episcopal Church and strive to improve the world in many ways. To that end, I brought reminders of the Emanuel 9 with me here. I have the beautiful Post & Courier cover that ran on Sunday, a drawing by a Mount Pleasant 7-year-old, and the bulletin from the prayer vigil I attended the morning after the shooting.

Remembering the Emanuel 9 at General Convention

But I still felt like we needed to do more. Last night, I realized that I would be beginning a Legislative Hearing at 7 pm tonight Mountain Time. It will be exactly one week since the shooting, and there must be a way to honor that. Through work of our deputation, we have written a prayer that will be read at all of the Legislative Meetings tonight at General Convention. The Emanuel 9 will be remembered by the thousands of Episcopalians here so that they can pray for and with us. We hope that you all may read the same prayer with us this evening.

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As the Legislative Committees of the 78th General Convention gather for hearings at 7:00 p.m. today, it is exactly one week since nine people were murdered at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

We give thanks for the faithfulness of God's people and we pray that, as in the death of all martyrs, God may continue to be glorified in the lives of all saints. And we pray,

O God, it is your will to hold both heaven and earth in a single peace. Let the design of your great love shine on the pains of our woundedness, confusion and great sorrow, and continue to bring peace to our community, peace to your Church, peace among peoples, and peace in our homes. And may the balm of your reconciling love lived out among us continue to soothe our suffering hearts. All this we pray in name of our wounded and risen Savior, God with us, Jesus Christ. Amen.