Title: Lutherans Provide Emotional, Spiritual Care at Virginia Tech ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 20, 2007
Lutherans Provide Emotional, Spiritual Care at Virginia Tech 07-067-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Disaster Response, a collaborative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, is providing emotional and spiritual care at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va., after a lone gunman shot and killed 32 people there before killing himself April 16.
"Our response will include outreach and spiritual and emotional care for the campus community, the town of Blacksburg and the surrounding area. It will also include spiritual and emotional care for those beyond the borders of Virginia," said Heather L. Feltman, executive director, Lutheran Disaster Response, and director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response.
At the request of the Rev. James F. Mauney, bishop, ELCA Virginia Synod, Salem, Lutheran Disaster Response "will be hosting a series of consultations in early May with Lutheran clergy and congregational leaders in the Blacksburg area to talk about their congregational needs and to equip them for the important task of counseling (people) affected by traumatic grief. In addition, Lutheran Disaster Response has been invited to be present at the ELCA Virginia Synod Assembly in June," said Feltman.
"We who serve Virginia Tech can hardly express the thoughts and emotions which the past few days have evoked," the Rev. William H. King and the Rev. Joanna C. Stallings, Lutheran campus pastors at Virginia Tech, wrote in an April 18 letter to their ELCA campus ministry colleagues.
"Many have asked about our situation. Classes have been dismissed until Monday (April 23). Nobody is sure what it is going to be like when they begin again. Norris Hall has been closed for the rest of the semester. This event is such a singularity that nobody feels confident predicting how the pastoral needs will develop. There is great concern that just about the time the numbness of initial grief wears off students will be dispersed from their primary support systems by summer break. Our greatest challenge in campus ministry may well come in the fall. Amidst it all we try to speak with honesty about both the inexplicable nature of the tragedy and (the) hope that is within us," they said.
King, who also serves as deployed staff of the Department for Campus Ministry, ELCA Vocation and Education, delivered the Christian message April 17 at the Virginia Tech Convocation where students, faculty and others of the community gathered to remember the victims of the shooting on campus.
Mauney and Jan Tobias, Lutheran Disaster Response coordinator for Virginia, attended worship April 17 at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation located across the street from the university's campus. Tobias served as a campus pastor at Virginia Tech, and his daughter is a Virginia Tech alumna. He said the "idea of the Virginia Tech community being a very close-knit one may seem cliche but (it) is very realistic."
During his visit Tobias and Mauney met with students and others at Virginia Tech.
"We listened to the students. It is amazing to hear how the relationships within even a large university cause rings of associations to overlap; all are connected somehow -- close friends, roommates with some of those killed. We listened and watched as they cared for one another, made plans for the care of one another. They are people of great talent and intelligence founded upon faith," Mauney said, adding that professors spoke about their students, about their colleagues and about their families.
A group of students at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C., assembled for a group photo April 20 to express their support for their counterparts on the Virginia Tech campus. The students wore orange and maroon -- Virginia Tech's school colors -- as they participated in a nationwide outpouring of support. Lenoir- Rhyne will also hold a candlelight vigil on April 23 in memory of those who died at Virginia Tech. Lenoir-Rhyne is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA. - - -
Audio of King's message at the Virginia Tech Convocation is available at http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070417.mp3 on the ELCA Web site.
Information about Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, Blacksburg, Va., is available at http://www.lmlc.org on the Internet.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog