Last week the House of Deputies President the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings and Vice President the Hon. Byron Rushing issued a letter to deputies on gun violence. You can read this letter here.
In this letter they reference a resolution passed by Executive Council that reaffirms the General Convention’s longstanding support of restrictions on the sale, use and ownership of guns and its commitment to adequate funding for mental health services. The resolution also allows the Episcopal Church to join other faith-based advocates in working to make gun trafficking a federal crime. This will give law enforcement officials the power to investigate and prosecute straw purchasers, gun traffickers and their networks. Most of all, it calls on all Episcopalians to work toward ending the cycles of violence that fuel the epidemic of gun crime. (excerpted from Episcopal News Service)
What stands out to me is the last line of this letter, “let us ‘examine our own cultural attitudes toward violence through efforts in our own congregations and communities, to repent of our own roles in the glorification and trivialization of violence, and to commit ourselves to another way.’
I am honored to work for and with a church with strong convictions on this issue and I urge everyone through their role as congregational leaders to begin to discuss this important issue in adult education forums and in church services.
Check the new Facebook page that has been created https://www.facebook.com/EpiscopaliansAgainstGunViolence which gives some idea about activity going on around the Episcopal Church.
What are you doing in your congregation to address this issue?