wfn.org | Episcopalians helping after Columbine massacre

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Kathryn McCormick
Episcopal News Service
Kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-055
The Columbine massacre is over, but Colorado's healing has barely begun
by Linda Regensburger
(ENS) When students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 of their 
fellow students and a teacher April 20 at Columbine High School near 
Littleton, their violence jolted not only Littleton but Colorado and the
nation.
But there are signs that their plan, which included planting bombs, is
having 
repercussions very different from those the two shooters seem to have 
imagined. Their community quickly found ways to begin healing.

Colorado clergy agreed days after the killings that they are seeing a
spiritual
awakening among people of all ages. According to Ken Ross, rector of St.
Nicholas' Episcopal Church, in Littleton, youth especially are
experiencing
a new spiritual hunger. Ross' congregation distributed 144 Bibles,
donated
by a local Christian bookstore, the day of the shootings. The following
Sunday, congregants took another 144 Bibles, again donated, to the
public memorial
service attended by Vice President Al Gore, General Colin Powell and
other
dignitaries.

St. Gregory Episcopal Church, Littleton, counts four Columbine students
among its members, according to Todd Sorensen, rector. On April 20, one
of the students was at home sick and two others had gone off campus for 
lunch, he said. Only one was in the school's cafeteria when the shooting

and explosions broke out there. That student, who prefers to remain 
anonymous, spent several hours hiding in a kitchen closet with 17 other 
students and school staff before police SWAT members freed them.
Everyone was affected
"Almost everyone knows someone who was at Columbine or was in some
way affected," says Sorensen. For instance, a parishioner who is a
broadcast
journalist "had to talk with me several times," he said. "She was quite 
traumatized-the media, of course, saw much more than the general
public."

Like other Colorado churches, St. Timothy Episcopal Church, Littleton,
put
together an impromptu prayer service the evening of the shootings. St.
Timothy's
rector Don Warner, said he has been extremely busy ministering to people
of all
ages. Only one of the church's members is a Columbine student, and
Warner has counseled him a number of times since the shootings. But Dana
Max, a 
psychologist with a private practice in Littleton, is also a member of
St. 
Timothy's and went immediately to Leawood Elementary School when he
got the news. Leawood was the "staging" area where Columbine students 
were sent while police secured the high school building.

"I had one of the 'good' jobs," Max said. "As the students got off the
buses from Columbine, the Library, Clement Park and the neighborhood, I
met them and 
took down their names so they could be reunited with their parents.

"Even though many of the kids didn't see the actual shooting, they saw
the
aftermath and were traumatized by it," says Max.

Churches in adjacent college towns in northern Colorado also responded.
St. Luke Episcopal Church, Ft. Collins, pulled together a prayer vigil
the
day after the shootings. More than 120 attended, including parents,
youth 
and three graduates of Columbine who are now attending Colorado State 
University.
A place to grieve
The day after the shooting, Bishop William Jerry Winterrowd of Colorado
sent a pastoral letter to clergy in his diocese, charging them to
provide a safe
place to grieve.

"We all find ourselves asking the question, 'Why?'" he wrote. "Of
course,
good answers to questions are fleeting and of little comfort in the face
of this
kind of senseless destruction. If we cannot adequately answer 

'Why did this happen?' perhaps we can at least demonstrate 'How' we as
Christians respond." He invited people throughout the diocese to a
memorial
requiem Eucharist at St. John Cathedral in Denver on Sunday, April 25.
He
added that, after consulting with youth ministry leaders, he had decided
to
postpone the Episcopal Youth Convention (EYC), scheduled for that
weekend.

In lieu of the convention, youth directors and clergy throughout the
Denver
area joined together to create an all-day youth event that was held on 
Saturday, April 24. It focused on grief, healing and resurrection. A
local 
McDonald's donated food and Christian artist Matt Jones, who was to have
appeared at the convention, concluded the day with a concert.

The next day, the cathedral's massive wooden doors were decorated with 
two simple evergreen wreaths, each bearing a spray of blue and white 
columbine, Colorado's state flower. More than 1,500 filled the cathedral

to join in the requiem Eucharist, which was celebrated by Winterrowd. 
High school students participated as acolytes, readers, chalcifers and 
intercessor. The crowd, many of whom wore Columbine High School's 
colors of blue and silver, was quiet and attentive as the Rev. Lucia
Guzman, 
executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches, reminded
mourners 
that "we can be assured of impending healing and wholeness because of
the 
Eucharist."
Healing and closure
At the prayers of the people, high school students helped congregants
light 
candles, and the cathedral's lights were dimmed. Then, intercessor Chris

deBree read the names of the injured and the 15 dead, including the two
who
fired the guns. As silence filled the cathedral, its Great Bell tolled
again and
again, once for each death.

As Colorado wrestles with what has happened, Episcopalians plan to be in
the midst of the struggle, working with various interfaith efforts to
help
bring healing and closure to a wounded community.

Both Sorensen and Gerry Schnackenberg, rector of St. Peter & St. James
Church, Denver, and a resident of the Columbine neighborhood, are
working 
with community clergy groups and the Jefferson County School District to

plan a blessing of the high school campus when it reopens this fall.

"That building," said Sorensen, "needs to be reclaimed."
--Linda Regensburger is editor of the Colorado Episcopalian.

Sidebar:
Son of Anglican priest murdered in Canadian
high school
A week after the massacre of students in a Denver suburb, a 14-year-old
boy walked into a high school in southern Alberta and shot two students,

killing the 17-year-old son of an Anglican priest.

Jason Lang, who according to his father, the Rev. Dale Lang, "had
everything 
to live for," was a student at W.R. Myers High School in Tabor, a
farming 
community of about 8,000 southeast of Calgary, and was "just walking
down 
the hall at the wrong time on the way to class."

Lang doesn't believe that the shooting had anything to do with his son
but 
does believe that the "disturbed individual" who did it was influenced
by the 
massacre at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado. "I have no
doubt 
he was impacted by the violence he saw in Colorado," Lang said. "He told

somebody that he was."

Lang said that he didn't want his son's death to be "a random act of
violence 
that leaves us scarred. I don't want Jason's death to be meaningless, I
want his 
death to count for something." He told a memorial service at the high
school, 
"We cannot live in fear. Evil entered here and must be gotten rid of.
God does 
not want to leave things like this. This school is not going to be taken
by fear, 
it is not going to be taken over by evil." Joined by his wife and
children, Lang 
walked to the spot where his son died and offered a prayer.