Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will offer closing comments and a benediction at the Inaugural National Bible Study that will be livestreamed at 7 p.m. ET June 17 at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, marking the seventh anniversary of the shooting deaths of nine Black church members attending Bible study.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., will also participate in the program, which will feature a panel of biblical scholars and church leaders discussing “The Parable of the Soils” in Mark 4:1-9—the same text church members were studying the night they were killed by a white supremacist.
“Remembering the Emanuel Nine in Charleston is also a call to action, calling people of faith, as the parable of the soils suggests, not to get weary but to keep sowing seeds for change,” said the Rev. Margaret Rose, deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations for The Episcopal Church.
After last month’s racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 people, Curry issued a pastoral statement, noting, “The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting, and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long.”
The commemorative service will kick off a nationally coordinated weekend of Bible study, prayer, and preaching that will conclude on June 19 in celebration of Juneteenth, the U.S. holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
Find details and handouts for the June 17 event.
Watch the livestream on the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Facebook page.