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07227 April 19, 2007
Web resources available for congregations dealing with Virginia Tech massacre
PC(USA) site includes worship, youth, theological materials
by Jerry Van Marter
LOUISVILLE - A number of offices at the Presbyterian Center have contributed resources to a new Web site designed to help congregations that are responding in various ways to this week's mass murders at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.
These resources - The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program Response to Virginia Tech tragedy (http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/virginiatech.htm)- were constructed by the PC(USA)'s Internet Services team in the 24 hours following the killings and includes resources for worship, hymns, resources for use with youth and children, news stories, theological reflections on violence and the Lordship of Christ when confronted with evil, and a statement on the tragedy at Virginia Tech by General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick.
Contributors to these resources include the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, the Theology and Worship office, Presbyterians Today magazine, the Presbyterian News Service, Church World Service - the New York-based ecumenical relief and development agency, the Youth and Young Adult Ministries office, National Health Ministries and the Child Advocacy office.
Poignantly, the resources include a hymn written by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette in 1999 in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
In addition to the Web-based resources, congregations in the vicinity of Virginia Tech have received dozens of calls from Presbyterians all over the country offering assistance.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has dispatched three trauma specialists to Blacksburg: the Rev. Robert Barnes, a retired police chaplain in Santa Fe, NM, who was PDA's lead responder to the Columbine shootings; the Rev. James Kirk, associate pastor of Moorings Presbyterian Church in Naples, FL, who also has extensive experience responding to school shootings; and Anne Van Allen of Annapolis, MD, a retired school counselor with more than 30 years of school-related mental health experience.
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