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Minnesota bishop requests prayers for school-shooting victims

Mar. 23, 2005

By Victoria Rebeck*

MINNEAPOLIS (UMNS)--In the wake of shootings on a Minnesota Indian
reservation that left 10 people dead, United Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck
has promised the prayers of the church to the Red Lake tribe.

"I have written to the Red Lake tribal chairman, promising him the
prayers of United Methodists," Dyck, bishop of the Minnesota Area, told
United Methodists in an e-mailed pastoral letter on March 22. She asked
Minnesota United Methodists, in their church worship services held
Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday, to pray for the people of Red
Lake.

"Remember the parents, the relatives, the teachers, the school
employees, the neighbors, the friends, the law enforcement agents, and
those who will provide care for this grieving community," she said.

On March 21, a 16-year-old boy opened fire on his high school on the Red
Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, killing five students, a
security guard and a teacher and wounding seven other students. He is
believed to be the gunman who also shot to death his grandfather and his
grandfather's friend. The boy ultimately took his own life at the
school.

"We think about the pain that the victims' families and friends must be
enduring. We fear the violence that may break into our towns, homes, and
schools-places where we would like to feel safe. Though this story will
eventually leave the front pages, the people of Red Lake will live with
the horror and loss for many years," Dyck said.

Church disaster relief organizations have not been invited to offer
direct response to this crisis, but United Methodists are providing
physical assistance through the Red Cross.

Several members of Bemidji United Methodist Church, 35 miles south of
Red Lake, volunteer with the North Star Chapter of the Red Cross. The
church's pastor, the Rev. Eric Hucke, is the chapter's board chairman,
and layperson George Stowe is chapter manager of the Beltrami County
chapter of the Red Cross.

On March 22, Hucke and other Red Cross workers were busy preparing
sandwiches and stew for their neighbors in Red Lake. Many church members
work in Red Lake-in various aspects of law enforcement, the Indian
Public Health Service, the tribal college, and at Red Lake Elementary
School. A number of church member are employed by the North Country
Regional Hospital in Bemdiji, where several of the shooting victims were
sent.

Through their work, the Bemidji United Methodists will be reaching out
to Red Lake residents. Hucke expected to make a pastoral call to a
church member who is a teacher at Red Lake High School and who had
taught the suspected shooter in her classroom last year. "She is
traumatized," Hucke said.

Violence in schools makes most people feel vulnerable, observed the Rev.
Heather Klason, the denomination's Minnesota Annual (regional)
Conference disaster relief coordinator. "Many people are feeling fearful
right now, wondering if this could also happen in their own
communities," she said. "The problem is deeper than just one individual
shooter."

Klason affirmed the need to support people in prayer. "Lamentations is
an often-avoided book of the Bible," she said. "Yet through prayers of
lamentation, we bear witness to others' pain.

"Witnessing to the pain-allowing others to tell their of their
experience, without our trying to 'fix" it--helps people begin the
process of recovery," she noted.

*Rebeck is director of communications for the Minnesota Annual
Conference.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

The full text of Bishop Sally Dyck's letter follows:

Dear Minnesota United Methodists:

Like me, you are probably deeply distressed to hear of the shootings at
Red Lake that have taken at least ten lives. We think about the pain
that the victims' families and friends must be enduring. We fear the
violence that may break into our towns, homes, and schools-places where
we would like to feel safe. Though this story will eventually leave the
front pages, the people of Red Lake will live with the horror and loss
for many years.

Because the site of the shootings is under both tribal and federal
jurisdiction, church agencies have not been asked to provide disaster
relief assistance. The Red Cross, however, is providing food and trauma
counselors to the people of that area. Rev. Eric Hucke, pastor of
Bemidji United Methodist Church, is the chairman of the board of the
North Star chapter of the Red Cross and others in his church also
volunteer with the Red Cross. As early as Tuesday, March 22, folks from
Bemidji UMC have begun working with the Red Cross to prepare sandwiches
and stew and bring it to the grieving people in Red Lake. Other Bemidji
UMC members are ministering to their Red Lake neighbors through their
work as Bemidji hospital workers and Red Lake law enforcement officers,
school teachers, and public health service providers, and as friends.

At this point there is not much more we can do to offer physical relief.
But we can provide something extremely important: our prayers. This
week, on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, we will recall
the suffering of Jesus Christ and recognize the anguish of our world's
people. On Easter, we will celebrate the rebirth of hope and new life.

I have written to the Red Lake tribal chairman, promising him the
prayers of United Methodists. During your church worship services this
Holy Week-particularly from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday-pray
for the people of Red Lake. Remember the parents, the relatives, the
teachers, the school employees, the neighbors, the friends, the law
enforcement agents, and those who will provide care for this grieving
community.

Rev. Heather Klason, the Minnesota Annual Conference disaster relief
coordinator, has noted that in recent years, we "allow" people an
increasingly shorter time to mourn their losses. Yet the grieving
process maintains no schedule. Furthermore, the temptation to apply
theological fixes to suffering does not help people to heal. We can
minister best by "witnessing" to suffering by allowing people to tell of
their experiences-and by upholding them in prayer.

Resources for worship and prayer in the face of violence are posted on
the General Board of Discipleship Web site. You can find those at:
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=2594.
More prayers and litanies may become available from GBOD worship
ministry area later this week, and will be shared with you as they are
provided.

This week, as you recall the suffering of Jesus and of our neighbors in
Minnesota and around the world, please join me in prayers of
lamentation--and Easter hope.

Bishop Sally Dyck

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United Methodist News Service
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