[ecm] The latest... from ECM

Wed Apr 18 18:36:03 EDT 2007

Greetings,

        You'll probably see it on the news tonight - the Vigil this noon in
the Sculpture Garden at Lory attracted about 200, according to a CSU staff
member.  It seemed an appropriate way to honor and remember those slain at
VA Tech on Monday.  There were prayers, music, statements, tears.  A couple
VPI alums spoke.  Several present had connections with people in Blacksburg.
The CSU ROTC gave out orange & maroon ribbons, and collected signatures on
panels to be made into a quilt for the family of the ROTC cadet killed on
Monday.

        Sarah Beetch took the lead in organizing the gathering on less than
24-hours notice.  If you catch the 5 pm news on channel 4 today you should
see an interview with Sarah.

          Episcopal Campus ministry reaches out in response to campus
shooting

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Canterbury House Episcopal ministry
on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University plan to
gather on the evening of April 18 for a memorial and healing service,
following an April 16 shooting spree at the school which is being called the
deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 

The Rev. Elizabeth Morgan, interim rector of Christ Episcopal Church,
Blacksburg, Virginia, said she was able to check on the small number of
students who live at the Canterbury House and all are accounted for.

A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech, killing 32
people and wounding another 24 before he was killed, according to the
Washington Post.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said that the people of the
Episcopal Church are shocked and saddened by the shootings at Virginia Tech.
"We hold in our prayers the students, faculty, and staff of that
institution, their families, and all affected by today's events," she said
"As we begin to confront this senseless loss, we will continue to pray for
all who grieve and search for understanding."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84976_ENG_HTM.htm

Here's a message from the Episcopal Chaplain at Virginia Tech, Scott
Russell.  Please keep him and the students at VT in your prayers.  

First let me say how grateful I am to see my inbox filling up with so many
wishes and thoughts and prayers -- from campus ministers, chaplains, even
students and other Canterbury groups.  Of course your prayers will help us
immensely getting through this very dark time.

All I can say is that we still are in shock.  As dawn is breaking in
Blacksburg I am looking out on a town and a campus that will never be the
same.  So many people I have spoken with simply can't find words to express
their emotions.  Not yet...

I am very grateful to be able to report that all of the Episcopal students
with whom I work and have a relationship with are safe but, of course,
deeply shaken and grieving.

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Ryan "Stack" Clark -- a member
of the LGBTA, a group with whom I have a pretty close working relationship
as well.  He was an amazing and gifted young man and will leave an "awful
hole" in the lives of so many.  He was the RA who tried to break up the
initial fight that may have set off this nightmare.  My prayers go out for
him and for his family.  May light perpetual shine upon him and on the
others, so many others.

Honestly, I fear to read the other names on the list when it is finally
released.  We are truly at the first step on a long road to healing.  That
said, please don't hesitate if you have a suggestions for resources,
paths-to-healing, etc., send them our way!

Our hearts are simply broken, but thanks be to God, Christ is risen!
Indeed!  Alleluia!

Faithfully,

Scott+

After Virginia Tech shootings, Episcopalians join country in prayer

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] As the enormity of the deadliest shooting in United
States history settled on the country, Episcopalians participated in prayer
vigils and other remembrances. 

A gunman opened fire in a dormitory and then a classroom building at
Virginia Tech early in the morning of April 16, killing 32 people.

On April 17, law enforcement authorities identified the killer as Cho
Seung-Hui, 23, a South Korean who was a resident alien in the United States
and in his senior year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University as an English major. Cho later killed himself.  Reports still
vary about whether Cho was the only person who fired either of the two guns
found in the aftermath of the killings.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_85034_ENG_HTM.htm

Tonight:  Holy Communion at 7 pm, St Paul's.  Brian Johnson gives the
homily, Amelia Booker plays guitar and sings an original composition at the
offertory.  You're invited!

       The Episcopal Campus Ministries meets at 5 pm this Sunday April 22.
Come on by for The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of
the World's Most Animated Family.  We'll laugh a lot and look beneath the
silliness at the faith often found in the episodes.  This week?  Lisa the
Skeptic.  And as always, dinner will be served.  All students and young
adults are welcomed!  We start in the classroom building, the separated
building on the south.

Hey, why not give it a try?

What if my favorite charity had a penny for every time I searched the
Internet?

Now it can!

Search the web with www.goodsearch.com <http://www.goodsearch.com/>  and
money from our 

advertisers will go to your favorite charity without you spending a dime!  

St Pauls Episcopal Church (Fort Collins, CO)

*          GoodSearch.com will donate 50% of advertising revenue, estimated
to be about a penny per search, to the charities selected by its users.

          I find myself still reeling from the shootings on the campus of
Virginia Tech on Monday.  We know that 32 students and faculty were slain
before the gunman took his life.  I'm sure we'll know more soon.

          Maybe it's due to my working so closely with students here in Fort
Collins; maybe it's being the father of a 21 year-old college student;
perhaps it's because a lot of my friends went to VPI in the '70's and I
worked with a ministry in the '80's that was based in Blacksburg; or it may
be just the shock of apprehending the deadliest shooting in our nation's
history - this has hit me hard.  In hours we'll know more about the victims.
Today our Student Assistant Sarah Beetch and I helped organize and lead a
memorial on the CSU campus at noon.

          My heart is breaking - and I know God's heart is breaking as well.
The senselessness puts any understanding of the event well past our
comprehension.  It's as though everything is stripped away.  This is the
moment in which we have nothing. except God and each other.  

          We don't understand the Crucifixion either, even after 20
centuries of prayer and reflection.  Rage and hatred took the life of the
One we call the Son of Man and Son of God.  During Holy Week we are shaken
to the core, sitting at the Last Supper, having our feet washed by a humble
God, and standing at the foot of the cross.  Perhaps we can sense God's
heart breaking.

          We don't understand the Resurrection.  All we can affirm with our
"Alleluias!" is the grace and mercy in God's gift to the world, and to you.
And God's heart is not "unbroken" by the Resurrection - it is made new, with
scars as vivid as nail prints.  Easter takes us past death to the other
side.  This is what we embrace when we hold onto God and each other in the
face of loss and evil.

          What can we do?  Pray for healing and forgiveness, for compassion
for the families of those who were killed.  Pray for those who survived, and
for those who bear wounds not visible or treatable at a hospital.  Pray for
the first responders, for the university community, for the faculty, staff
and students.  Strengthen the ties you have with others, reinforcing your
web of relationships.  Speak out on the issues that rise up in the aftermath
for you.  Reach out as Christ to those who seem lonely, distressed or
depressed.  Hold tight to your family and friends.

          Yours in Christ,

                   Rob+

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Rev. Robert Lundquist, Episcopal Chaplain

1208 W Elizabeth St, Ft Collins, CO 80521

   970-482-2668                 FAX 866-261-3507

 970-7515 cell & text        <mailto:rector at stpauls-fc.org>
rector at stpauls-fc.org

  <http://www.stpauls-fc.org/College_ministry.htm>
www.stpauls-fc.org/College_ministry.htm 

FaceBook:     <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2230590958>
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2230590958

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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