Newsline: Church leaders call for action on gun violence following shootings

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Church leaders share in sorrow following shootings, call for action on gun 
violence

(Aug. 10, 2012) Elgin, IL -- Church of the Brethren leaders have joined others 
in the Christian community in expressing sorrow and calling for prayer 
following shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin this past Sunday.

Statements have been made by Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan 
Noffsinger, along with Belita Mitchell who is a Brethren leader in Heeding 
God's Call, and Doris Abdullah, the denomination's representative to the United 
Nations.

Noffsinger shared in the grief of the families affected in this act of 
violence. He also expressed frustration with repeated incidents in recent 
weeks, referring to the shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., as well 
as the daily incidents of handgun violence across the country.

"Loss of life through gun violence occurs every day in American society, one 
person at a time," Noffsinger said. "Now we've had two larger events. How many 
people have to die in America before we come to the realization that there is a 
problem with assault weapons and handguns in our country? It is time for church 
and society to call for a thorough re-examination of the laws governing the 
purchase and ownership of guns and munitions."

An "Ending Gun Violence" resolution from the denomination's Mission and 
Ministry Board is just the most recent call for Brethren to join with other 
Christians to work against handgun violence in particular. The statement was 
made in 2010 in support of the National Council of Churches Governing Board and 
includes links to relevant statements issued in previous years by the Church of 
the Brethren Annual Conference. Find it at 
www.brethren.org/about/policies/2010-gun-violence.pdf .

Brethren representative to the UN calls for prayer

A request for people of faith to join in prayer vigils with the Sikh community 
has been shared by Doris Abdullah, the Church of the Brethren's representative 
to the United Nations.

"In response to the awful violent attack at their place of worship...one 
request calls for the faith community to show solidarity through prayer 
vigils," Abdullah said. "I hope that we can extend their request to our greater 
community."

Abdullah also chairs an NGO committee related to the UN, the Human Rights 
Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism. She noted that the Sikhs have 
recently joined the group. "I have extended personal sympathy to them on the 
tragedy," she reported. "Finding 'common ground' among the various faith 
traditions and beliefs is another one of the challenges put forward to civil 
societies by the UN to help eliminate racism."

Abdullah shared a "United Sikh" newsletter that is calling the interfaith 
community to show solidarity by holding prayer vigils in their own places of 
worship. (Find her own prayer response below.)

Mitchell speaks on behalf of Heeding God's Call, Harrisburg

Brethren minister and past Annual Conference moderator Belita Mitchell was 
quoted this week in a press release from Heeding God's Call. She pastors First 
Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg, Pa., and coordinates the Heeding God's 
Call chapter there.

Heeding God's Call has been working against gun violence on the streets of 
America's cities since it's beginnings at a meeting of the Historic Peace 
Churches (Brethren, Mennonites, and Quakers) in Philadelphia some years ago.

"We at Heeding God's Call grieve for those killed and injured and their 
families, friends, neighbors, and co-religionists," Mitchell said. "Americans 
believe that houses of worship should be places of safety and refuge, not 
places of carnage and terror. But, as long as we allow people intent on mayhem 
to gain guns with ease, often illegally, houses of worship will be as dangerous 
as so many neighborhoods and communities are now in our country."

Heeding God's Call is rapidly growing, the release said, and now includes 
active chapters in Northwest and Northeast Philadelphia, on the Main Line, in 
Harrisburg, Pa., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C. For more about the 
organization go to www.heedinggodscall.org .

>Have mercy on us: A prayer response

The Sikh community is calling on the interfaith community to show solidarity 
with them by holding prayer vigils in our own places of worship. I do not know 
if my church will hold a prayer vigil. So I will pray my prayer and stand in 
silent worship in my home. -- Doris Abdullah, Church of the Brethren 
representative to the United Nations and chair of the Human Rights 
Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, 
and Related Intolerance

"And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a 
ship, and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore" (Matthew 13:2).

>Prayer

O Lord, you are in the boat, and we are standing on the shore. Have mercy on 
us, our failure to respond to the violent hatred that darts across our land 
against those who worship differently, or who are not perceived to be of pure 
European origins, or who are poor and uneducated.

If only we could drown all the hate in the waters of love that you offer to the 
people. Let us not go on watching you, Lord Jesus, from the shoreline. Let us 
abandon our fears and swim out to thank you for a life everlasting. Swim out 
and thank you for the oldest of those killed, 84 years of age. Thank you for 
the brave policeman who had been shot eight times but waved away help for 
himself so other injured could be helped. And thank you for all the lives that 
were saved from the gunman on Sunday morning.

Thank you for another day to show that in solidarity prayer, good fruits 
without the blemish of hate can come forth. Lord have mercy on us as we pray. 
Amen

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing 
the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith 
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 
300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United 
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org