By The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Dean and President
I commend to your prayers all those injured and hurt in the violence at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend and all those who fear for their safety and for the future of this country.
I pray for our nation in its time of testing and for the Episcopal Church and its leaders. I pray for this community, our alumni/ae, our staff, faculty and friends, and our new and returning students.
What are we called to do and say today and in what are certain to be challenging days ahead?
- To be people who extend Christ’s love to neighbors, strangers, and enemies.
- To repent of sin, both individual wrongdoing and the corporate sin in which we are implicated.
- To pray for forgiveness and mercy.
- To study the ways Christian teaching has been complicit in racism and also the ways it has been a powerful voice for resistance to evil.
- To get involved in the political process, to write an op-ed, to organize action for the common good.
- To attend a vigil, to plan a liturgy for peace, to preach the life-giving vision we find in Holy Scripture.
- To have a conversation with someone from a different background, a different race, or a different political opinion.
I pray that together we may not succumb to fear, silence, and shame, but be faithful, wise, and strong, today and in the days to come.
Please reach out to one another. Talk with your classmates, your colleagues and family. Talk with me – I welcome that.
I am grateful to be in the global community of prayer and learning that is friends and alums of Seminary of the Southwest.
Faithfully,
Cynthia
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”
Romans 12:9-12
