wfn.org | Bishop pledges to work for gun control at policeman's funeral

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 14, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.  10-21-71B{063}

By Dean Snyder*

BALTIMORE (UMNS) -- United Methodist Bishop Felton E. May pledged to work
for gun control during the Feb. 10 funeral of a slain police officer and
called on all congregations in the church to teach the commandments, "Thou
shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not kill."

"As a society we must control guns, but more than that, we must write God's
commandments on human hearts," said May, who leads the United Methodist
Church's Washington Area. The bishop spoke at the funeral of Bruce A.
Prothero, a 35-year-old Baltimore County police sergeant who was shot during
a jewelry store robbery in Pikesville, Md.

"May we all repent of the violence that brings us here today," he said. "May
we repent for every person we have failed to reach with the love of Jesus
Christ."

The funeral was held at Reisterstown United Methodist Church in suburban
Baltimore, where Prothero was an active member along with his wife Ann and
their five children. Ann Prothero's late grandfather, John Warman, was a
United Methodist bishop. Her uncle, the Rev. Oden Warman, who read Scripture
at the funeral, is superintendent of the church's Washington (Pa.) District
of the Western Pennsylvania Conference.

Speaking directly to Ann Prothero, May said, "In memory of Bishop Warman, a
mentor of mine in the episcopacy, and your husband, I pledge my leadership
in the United Methodist Church to assist the state and federal governments
to do whatever is necessary to keep and remove guns from the hands of
criminals."

The Rev. Frank Trotter, pastor of Reisterstown United Methodist Church, said
that Prothero considered police work a divine calling rather than just a
job. "He told me, for him, being a police officer was a call from God," he
said. "He believed that the Lord Jesus Christ walked with him."

During the service, Ann Prothero read a letter she'd written to her husband
after his death.  "We lived our lives with no regret," she read. "You were
the light of your children's eyes, and we jumped for joy every day when you
walked through that door."

Their children include Holly, 6, triplets, Parker, Andrew and Kimberly, 4,
and Hannah who will be 2 on Feb. 20. 

John Warman, Ann Prothero's father, spoke about Prothero's devotion to his
children. "His children had more fun in their yard than most kids have on a
trip to Disney World," he said.

In a letter to the congregation, read by Trotter as part of the service,
Holly Prothero spoke of camping, bike riding and playing games with her
father. "I always had fun with my dad," she wrote.

"If we want to make the most out of his life, we should live our lives the
way he did," John Warman said of his son-in-law. "We should love each other;
we should serve gladly; we should live with joy and energy and hold nothing
back." 

During the service, more than 1,000 police officers, including delegations
from as far away as California, Texas and Canada, stood at attention outside
the church. Following the service, police cars and motorcycles led an
eight-mile procession to the cemetery.

Prothero was working part-time as a jewelry store security guard to earn
extra income on Feb. 7 when robbers grabbed some jewelry and ran out of the
store, according to the Baltimore County Police Department. Prothero chased
them into a parking lot where he was shot twice in the side. He died 45
minutes later. 

In his sermon, Trotter said he did not have many answers for the grieving
family. "The one thing I am sure of," he said, "is that God did not cause
Bruce to die."

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*Snyder is director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church. 

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United Methodist News Service
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