The statement includes a call for prayers for the two Brown University students who were shot and killed Dec. 13 on campus while in a final exam prep session. One of the Brown University students killed, Ella Cook, was a member of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama.

The bishops also called for prayers for the Jewish community in Australia after 15 people were shot and killed Dec. 14 during a Hanukkah celebration on a beach. They denounced antisemitism as a “continued evil.” Antisemitism – hostility or prejudice against Jewish people – has been growing worldwide, including Australia and the United States.

A prayer adapted from Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence, is included in the statement.

As of Dec. 17, 14,030 people nationwide have died by gun violence in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States.

The bishops’ statement follows.

Our Commitment to Peace and Justice in a Broken World

Beloved of God,

In the midst of an Advent full of joyful preparation, this past weekend delivered a stark reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ was and continues to be born into a broken world full of danger and sin. As Episcopal and Lutheran bishops in New England, we ask you all to hold the people of Providence, and particularly Brown University, in your prayers as they contend with the trauma of gun violence in their community. We pray especially for the repose of the two young people who have died and all who loved them. We pray also for all who are still in the grip of fear and uncertainty.

We also commend your prayers for the people of Sydney, Australia and particularly the Jewish community there and worldwide. Yet another attack on a Jewish religious gathering points to the continued evil of anti-Semitism across the globe. Please join us in standing with our Jewish siblings, while we continue to pray for peace and an end to religious violence of all kinds.

On Sunday we prayed the wonderful collect of Gaudete Sunday, called by some “Stir It Up” Sunday. It reads: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever.”

The collect resonates more than ever this week. May God’s power, grace, and mercy be abundantly revealed in our world. We pray also that God will stir up our own resolve to deepen our commitment to peace and justice. May our way and the way of all the lands be Peace.

Blessings upon your last week of Advent. May this time be one of renewed prayer and reflection as we await the entrance of Light into our despairing world.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth
Bishop Diocesan
Diocese of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens
Bishop Suffragan
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut

The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Brown
Bishop Diocesan
Diocese of Maine

The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher
Bishop Diocesan
Diocese of Western Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld
Bishop Diocesan
Diocese of New Hampshire

The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely
Bishop Diocesan
Bishop of Rhode Island

The Rt. Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown
Bishop Diocesan
Bishop of Vermont

The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello
Bishop Diocesan
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut

The Rev. Nathan D. Pipho, Bishop
New England Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

A prayer adapted from Bishops United Against Gun Violence

Almighty and merciful God, whose only Son came to preach peace to the nations: Hear us, we beseech you, and comfort those in Providence and Sydney with your steady hand, as we come before you in the wake

of unspeakable violence. Help those who mourn, those in pain, and those grieving to feel your healing presence and abiding love. In a world that seems hopeless, help us all to remember that our hope rests always in you, and in the resurrection of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

For more liturgical resources, click here.

Law enforcement tapes off an area at Utah Valley University in Orem after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10. Photo: The Deseret News via Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Utah and Bishop Phyllis Spiegel issued a statement condemning political violence and hatred and urging prayer and compassion after the assassination of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk at a large outdoor political event in Utah.

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking before as many as 3,000 people during the event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Federal and local authorities have launched a manhunt for the shooter, who remained at large Sept. 11. Little information has been released about the assassin’s assumed identity or motive.

Kirk was one of the most prominent and vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. He was credited with helping to elect Trump in 2024 through his leadership of the Turning Point USA organization, which focused on rallying younger voters behind Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The slain activist is survived by a wife and two children.

“Our prayers are with Mr. Kirk’s family and friends as the shock of this news settles upon them,” the Diocese of Utah said in its Sept. 10 statement on the shooting. “We hold in our prayers the victims of emotional trauma who were present at today’s event and the entire Utah Valley University community. We give thanks and ask for protection for all law enforcement and first responders.”

The diocese said Christ challenged his followers to “build a society rooted in compassion, dignity and justice,” and Spiegel said in her statement that prayer is necessary now and in other times of violence, but is not enough.

“We must guard the hatred in our hearts and on our lips; it is hatred and righteous indignation that leads to violence,” Spiegel said. “Jesus said plainly, ‘it is that which is on our lips and in our hearts that defiles us.’”

The killing of Kirk comes at a particularly volatile time in American politics, adding to a growing list of recent political violence against elected leaders and their supporters. In June, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were assassinated in their home, and another state lawmaker and his wife were shot and injured. Trump also was targeted by assassination attempts twice on the campaign trail last year, including a July 2024 shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Earlier attacks on politicians and their families include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, wounded in an October 2022 home invasion, and Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who was shot and injured in 2017 while practicing with a congressional baseball team. And on Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.

The Kirk shooting also comes as the United States continues to grapple with a growing number of gun deaths and mass shootings across what is the most heavily armed nation in the world. In fact, Kirk was fielding a question from the crowd about gun violence when he was hit in the neck by a single gunshot. He was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a convener of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence network, issued a statement Sept. 10 that warned gun violence was “fast becoming our country’s greatest sin.”

“I am aghast that someone has shot and killed Mr. Charlie Kirk. At about the same time three young people were shot at Evergreen High School in Colorado,” Perry said. “We as people of faith must unite and take action. Our prayers will be our actions.

“The ready access to guns in our country is the primary reason why gun violence is the number one cause of childhood deaths. People of faith can no longer stand by hoping and wishing that this violence goes away.”

Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith also responded to the violence in a joint statement released Sept. 11.

“Yet another American public figure has been killed, one more victim of the culture of  contempt that, at its extreme, portrays those with whom we disagree as enemies to be destroyed,” Budde and Hollerith said. “Today we mourn for Charlie Kirk. He was a son, a father, a husband and now his loved ones join the grieving community of Americans that spans across geography, political party, racial, gender and economic divides. Their lives have been forever changed by the violence we inflict upon one another.”

The Washington Episcopal leaders drew a connection between this “culture of contempt” and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exactly 24 years ago. Such a mindset, then and now, “encourages us to view one another, across our differences, with suspicion and fear. It normalizes ridicule, dishonesty, and hateful rhetoric that leads some to take violent action,” they said.

“We needn’t continue to live this way. Yet addressing the culture of contempt will require us all to commit to its only antidote: acknowledging the inherent dignity of every human being, and a renewed dedication to civility, respect and decency in our personal lives and public discourse.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

Bishop Ian T. Douglas, a founding co-convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, speaks at Bishops United’s public witness during the 2024 General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bishops United Against Gun Violence is in the midst of a leadership transition.

Later this month, Bishops Ian T. Douglas, resigned of Connecticut, and Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez of Pennsylvania will step down as co-conveners of the 120-member network. Bishop Bonnie Perry of Michigan will continue as a co-convener, and she will be joined by Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent of the Diocese of Maryland.

Together, Perry and Schofield-Broadbent will collaborate with other bishops on a new course for Bishops United as the network enters its twelfth year. (Read the story of Bishops United ‘s first decade.)

Douglas co-founded Bishops United after mass shootings at the Sikh temple in Oak Grove, Wisconsin and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his diocese in 2012. He has been a co-convener ever since. Gutiérrez served six years as a co-convener. His diocese succeeded the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and the Diocese of Newark in handling the network’s finances.

During this period of reorientation, Bishops United will continue to play a role in interfaith efforts to curb gun violence through the work of Bishop Mark Beckwith, resigned of Newark and a former co-convener, who will remain is his position as the network’s liaison to the larger gun violence prevention movement.

Bishops United Against Gun Violence is a network of some 120 Episcopal bishops working to curtail the epidemic of gun violence in the United States through public liturgy, spiritual support, sound teaching and persistent advocacy.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures with a bloodied face as multiple shots rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Photo: Brendan McDermid/REUTERS

[Episcopal News Service] Bishops from across The Episcopal Church, including Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, have released statements condemning the July 13 assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.

“The way of love – not the way of violence – is the way we bind up our nation’s wounds. We decry political violence in any form, and our call as followers of Jesus of Nazareth is always to love. We pray for the families of those who were killed,” Curry said in a July 13 statement released by The Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs. “We pray for former President Trump and his family and for all who were harmed or impacted by this incident. I pray that we as a nation and a world may see each other as the beloved children of God.”

A 20-year-old gunman opened fire, killing one person and critically injuring two others in the crowd. Trump was not critically injured, but his upper right ear was grazed. A member of the Secret Service Counter Assault Team later shot and killed Thomas Matthew Crooks, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who had no prior criminal record.

“As more information emerges, we decry all violence that threatens human life, and certainly the lives of those who put themselves forward in our democratic, political processes,” California Bishop Marc Andrus and California Bishop Coadjutor Austin Rios said in a July 13 statement posted to the diocese’s Facebook page. “These processes must be safe, and the people who run for election, and those who surround them with their support, must be able to do so without fear.”

“We give thanks that former President Trump is safe and we pray for the repose of the souls of those who were shot in today’s incident,” Dallas Bishop George Sumner said in a statement posted to the diocese’s Facebook page. “We pray for the safety of all in public life. We give thanks for all those who protect us. We pray for the cessation of violence in our political life, as well as rhetoric on all media that promote it.”

Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to reduce gun violence, also posted a statement responding to the shooting on its Facebook page:

“We pray for former President Trump, for those who have died and been injured at today’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for all victims of gun violence. In our democracy, political violence is never the answer.”

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a co-convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, said in a July 13 statement she was “aghast” that someone would fire shots at Trump.

“I am deeply grateful that he is in good condition with what appear to be only minor wounds. I am and I ask all of us to pray for his well-being, for healing of the trauma this has inflicted upon him, the people close to him and upon the people who were attending a political rally and then suddenly found themselves in the presence of an active shooter,” she said.  “Our country is in peril. We cannot settle our differences with violence. Gun violence is wreaking havoc on all of our communities, whether you are attending a block party in Detroit or speaking at a presidential rally in Western Pennsylvania. This is a sin. A grievous sin that we, as people of faith, must address.”

As of June 15, 298 mass shootings have occurred nationwide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is defined as one in which at least four people are shot, either fatally or non-fatally, excluding the shooter.

“We must stop this scourge in our communities, in our schools and neighborhoods and gathering places,” South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley said in a July 13 statement posted to the diocese’s Facebook page. “God have mercy upon us and strengthen our resolve for peace, at home and across the world.”

In a July 14 statement, New Hampshire Bishop Rob Hirschfeld said “only the most cynical among us” will be undisturbed by the assassination attempt. He referred to Mark 6:14-29 in the statement:

“The way the world settles its disputes and conflict is habitually by force and savagery, rather than by the means of peace and forbearance,” Hirschfeld said. “To follow Jesus entails being acutely aware that the way of the world’s power and the Way of Christ’s Kingdom will be in stark contrast to one another.”

The July 13 shooting wasn’t the first known incident where someone attempted to assassinate Trump – three separate incidents occurred in 2016 and 2017. Two other presidents have been injured in attempted assassination attempts: Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt. Four sitting U.S. presidents have been killed, all by gunshot: Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.

Mississippi Bishop Brian R. Seage said in a July 13 statement posted to the diocese’s Facebook page that the assassination attempt on Trump “reminds us of the fragility of life and the urgent need for healing in our society.”

“As a community guided by faith, let us remember the teachings of compassion, forgiveness, and unity,” Seage said “Let us reach out to those in need, offering support and comfort wherever possible. And let us reaffirm our commitment to building a world where peace and justice prevail.”

During the 81st General Convention held last month in Louisville, Kentucky, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies voted to adopt various resolutions addressing gun violence, including D011, “The Prohibition of Assault Weapons,” which calls on The Episcopal Church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations to “strongly urge” Congress to ban the personal possession of all military-style assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. The weapon used to shoot trump at the campaign rally was a semiautomatic rifle legally purchased and registered to the suspect’s father.

“None of us is immune to the American epidemic of gun violence, and we condemn it in all its forms, and this day especially in the form of political violence,” North Carolina Bishop Sam Rodman and Assistant Bishop Jennifer Brooke-Davidson said in a July 14 statement. “The beloved community is a realm of peace that is the fruit of love, not of hatred nor violence.”

Bishops United Against Gun Violence joined members of the Youth Working to End Gun Violence delegation and in leading a march to pray and speak out in favor of gun safety during the 81st General Convention. The church’s history of passing gun-safety legislation dates to 1976. 

“Let us continue to work, advocate, and pray for an end to gun violence everywhere – that there may be justice and peace at home for all,” Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows said in a July 13 statement posted to the diocese’s Facebook page.

Springfield Bishop Brian K. Burgess called his diocese to intentional, intercessory prayer as a witness to the world.

“We have rights and privileges that are intended to mirror our theology so closely that they, too, bend time and space to their divinely orchestrated will,” he said in a July 13 statement. “However, with rights and privileges come responsibilities. It is time to temper the heat of political debate with common prayer, sacraments, and living into a scriptural rather than a social ethic. We don’t have a gun problem in this country, we have a sin problem … . Our children and grandchildren are watching.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Members of Youth Working to End Gun Violence spoke at Bishops United Against Gun Violence’s General Convention Witness Against Gun Violence rally at Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, during the 81st General Convention. June 27, 2024. Photo: Janet Kawamoto

[Episcopal News Service – Louisville, Kentucky] After three students were killed and five others were injured in 2023 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, T.J. Rapson, a high school student in the Diocese of Michigan, feared for his friends’ lives. He kept checking the news to make sure they were safe.

But that wasn’t Rapson’s only traumatic experience with gun violence.

“When I first saw that there was an opportunity to advocate for gun violence at General Convention, I immediately flashed back to sitting in the back corner of my biology classroom during a six-hour lockdown, thinking there was a very real possibility that I or some of my friends could die,” Rapson told Episcopal News Service, following a gun-safety rally.

Members of Bishops United Against Gun Violence and members of Youth Working to End Gun Violence gathered at the Kentucky International Conference Center June 27 to begin the General Convention Witness Against Gun Violence event. The two groups – with some members of the youth delegation holding a Bishops United Against Gun Violence sign – marched to nearby Jefferson Square Park to pray and speak out in favor of gun safety. Many of the bishop attending the rally wore orange stoles – the color of gun violence prevention.

Bishops United Against Gun Violence is a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to reduce gun violence. Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, former Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas and Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez are co-conveners. Members of Youth Working to End Gun Violence include 45 young people and 20 youth leaders from 13 dioceses.

Several teenagers from the youth delegation and Perry spoke at the rally. Douglas and Gutiérrez led prayers. Members of Moms United Against Gun Violence and Incarceration and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also attended the rally and distributed educational materials.

As of June 27, 254 mass shootings have occurred nationwide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is defined as one in which at least four people are shot, either fatally or non-fatally, excluding the shooter.

“This has become an increasingly serious issue, as the leading cause of death for people my age is gun violence,” Sophie Gable, a youth delegate, said in front of a crowd of hundreds of people.

Earlier this week, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies passed Resolution D014, “Declare Gun Violence a National Health Crisis,” which calls for the Office of Government Relations to promote legislation aimed at reducing gun violence and to urge U.S. officials to declare gun violence a national health crisis.

The deputies adopted D014 one day after a mass shooting occurred 2.5 miles from downtown Louisville. Eight people were shot at a nightclub, leaving one person dead. The cause of the shooting is unknown, and police are still looking for the suspect

“Gun violence is completely, utterly avoidable,” Perry told ENS. “We need to give young people tools – a platform, a voice – to be heard and organized to change our systems, which many of us who are adults seem not to be able to quite change.”

The bishops and deputies also voted this week to adopt Resolution D011, “The Prohibition of Assault Weapons,” which calls on The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations to “strongly urge” Congress to ban the personal possession of all military-style assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.

Bishops United Against Gun Violence aims to curtail gun violence by supporting laws requiring handgun purchaser licensing, background checks on all gun buyers, classifying gun trafficking as a federal crime, and funding gun violence prevention strategies, safe gun storage research, and other measures.

Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe also addressed the crowd at the rally. He spoke about the 2022 mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead, all of whom were Black. The perpetrator, a white 18-year-old, is a self-proclaimed white supremacist. Despite making up 14% of the U.S. population, Black people account for 60% of firearm homicides annually.

“I commend you, the lay leaders and the clergy and my colleagues, bishops who are doing this work – laying the foundation to end this epidemic, to rid us of this plague, to take our stand and to take our place as people of peace,” said Rowe, who is currently bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and provisional bishop of the Diocese of Western New York. Buffalo is in the Diocese of Western New York. He is also a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence.

Melaina Magnusson, a youth delegate from the Diocese of Michigan, told ENS she thinks the bishops’ efforts to reduce gun violence and listen to young voices are genuine.

“Seeing the bishops and The Episcopal Church listen to the youth and the things we have to say about gun violence has been really important and meaningful to me, because for a long time, I felt like I had no way of changing anything until I became an adult,” she said. “I think that this event – and many others like it in the past year, specifically – have really helped show me that I can make a change.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Between June 2 and July 7, 2024, Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, will display a memorial made from T-shirts bearing the names of Harris County gun violence victims. Photo: Hannah Atkins Romero

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal dioceses and churches nationwide are participating in anti-gun violence and pro-gun safety events in June in observance of National Gun Violence Awareness Month and Silence the Violence Month of Action.

“We’re falling short of God’s dream for us to live wholeheartedly in holiness and peace,” the Rev. Hannah Atkins Romero, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Diocese of Texas, told Episcopal Service. “In order to respond to that truth about the very essence of our being and God’s love for us, and also Christ’s embodiment, we must stand up for human dignity and for a life free of violence and bullying.”

Between June 2 and July 7, Trinity will display a memorial made from T-shirts bearing the names of Harris County gun violence victims. The installation, which is separate from Trinity’s permanent gun violence memorial, is a collaboration with members of Texas Impact, an interfaith, grassroots network of religious groups committed to providing outreach tools to support public policy education and advocacy initiatives. The T-shirts will hang from a clothesline outside the church, which will also be lit up at night with an orange light to “enhance our visual witness against gun violence.”

Orange has been the color of gun violence awareness since 2013, when Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old high school student, was shot to death on the south side of Chicago just a week after marching in former President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. Her friends asked people to honor Pendleton by wearing orange — the color hunters choose for safety — on her birthday, June 2. Their cause was taken up by gun violence prevention groups around the country which in 2015 promoted the first National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

This year, Wear Orange Weekend takes place June 7-9. Atkins Romero said parishioners will wear orange, but the T-shirts that are part of the memorial will vary depending on the cause of death. White T-shirts will represent victims of suicide, and green T-shirts will represent victims of accidental death or homicide.

More than 4,100 Harris County residents have died from gun violence since 2018, according to data compiled by Texas Impact. Statewide on average, 4,122 Texans die by guns annually, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, about 44,341 people die by guns every year. As of May 31, 6,864 people have died from gun violence in 2024, including 182 from mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is any shooting in which at least four people are shot.

Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray – a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence – told ENS in a statement that it’s Christians’ obligation to encourage and engage in gun violence prevention efforts.

“Our faith calls us to respect and honor all of life as sacred. …Working toward creating a safer society by actively working to end gun violence is our calling as Episcopalians and Christians,” he said. “We have experienced too much pain and loss in this nation. Let us support sensible gun laws that promote safety and prevention as we come together to heal from the trauma endured by too many of us.”

Most U.S. gun deaths are by suicide, which the CDC classifies as a public health issue in rural areas. Over the last 20 years, suicide rates have been higher in rural areas than urban areas. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is no exception, which is why Marna Franson, the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s missioner, works closely with regional suicide prevention organizations.

Based on information gathered by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, “if you can lock up your gun, you can sometimes stop the impulse for suicide because you have to find the key to unlock the gun,” Franson told ENS. “Beyond suicide, having guns locked when not in use prevents children from getting shot by accident.”

In response to the high suicide by gun rates in the Upper Peninsula, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marquette will host a gun lock blessing and distribution event on June 8. Each bag will contain a trigger lock and a cable lock, as well as information about gun safety and suicide prevention. Franson said this initiative emphasizes gun safety rather than gun violence prevention. It also “acknowledges and respects” the Upper Peninsula’s hunting heritage.

“If you don’t buy a gun, it’s often handed down to you, and for many families it’s a rite of passage to get your first buck during hunting season to provide food for your families,” Franson said. “We have to be realistic with the way we communicate with people about gun safety and gun locks depending on their culture around firearms.”

Franson said the Diocese of Northern Michigan is not promoting Wear Orange Weekend because the diocese instead plans to promote wearing orange on Sept. 30 for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known Orange Shirt Day, an annual day of remembrance and awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as Indigenous boarding school victims.

In the Diocese of West Missouri, the Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician in Excelsior Springs also will hand out free gun locks to promote gun safety on June 8. The event will feature a gun safety presentation by an Excelsior Springs police officer. Every participant is encouraged to wear orange.

“I think that everybody should be safe. It doesn’t matter if you have a gun, but for goodness sakes, make them safe. Lock your gun up and keep it away from children when you’re not using it,” Shannon Morgan, a lay leader at St. Luke’s told ENS.

In Webster Groves, Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson will speak at the Wear Orange to Prevent Gun Violence March & Rally on June 9. Participants will gather at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church and march to Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

On June 29, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, Diocese of Michigan, will host an ecumenical remembrance, education and action event addressing gun violence. The event will include a presentation on how people can educate and advocate for enforcing Michigan’s gun laws after the remembrance service. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and other nonprofits are sponsoring the event.

“One of the ways that we can serve our communities is to be the peacemakers,” Jim Mogensen, a St. Aidan’s parishioner and community activist, told ENS. “It’s the right thing to do and also a good way for congregations to go out into the community and work with some amazing people for justice.”

In Lower Michigan, the Detroit-based Diocese of Michigan has been active with gun violence prevention efforts in recent years. Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a co-convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, was instrumental in helping to launch End Gun Violence Michigan, a grassroots group credited with helping two of three gun safety laws pass in Michigan that went into effect in February.

The events at St. Aidan’s and St. Paul’s are part of a statewide series of more than 30 scheduled gun safety and violence prevention events taking place in June for the Silence the Violence Month of Action. Church of the Messiah, an Episcopal church in Detroit, started the Silence the Violence campaign in 2008. Trinity Episcopal Church in Niles will host an active shooter mitigation event on June 3, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in St. Joseph will host a candlelight vigil for gun violence victims on June 14.

“Jesus sent himself out to spread the Gospel, the Good News throughout the world,” the Rev. Tom Ferguson, vicar of St. Aidan’s, told ENS. “We need to be in the community and engage in compassionate care to end suffering, to care for people and make sure that no one is oppressed or afraid.”

Episcopal Peace Fellowship is also promoting Gun Violence Awareness Month and Wear Orange Weekend by providing a collection of liturgical materials, legislative action resources and suggestions on how to be a public witness to gun violence prevention on its website.

Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun safety legislation dating to 1976 here.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry calls for action to end gun violence in a Feb. 13, 2024 video statement, the same day three new gun safety laws took effect in the state and one year after a mass shooting killed three students and injured five others at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] One year after a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others on Feb. 13 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, three new gun safety laws take effect in the state.

“I am so, so sorry that all of the students at Michigan State University and students elsewhere live with this fear and experienced that trauma,” Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry said in a video statement. “I offer my prayers and invite you to join with me in offering prayers to our God that we may have the courage and the compassion to use the gifts God has given us to make differences — to change our world.”

One of the new laws includes requiring universal background checks for gun purchases. The same law also requires that guns be locked in storage. Michigan also established a red flag law — also known as an extreme risk law or temporary transfer law — which gives law enforcement agencies the authority to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who “could be dangerous.” Currently, 21 states have implemented some sort of red flag law.

“I ask you to link your prayers with tangible actions, using the gifts God has given us to make changes in our country so that these senseless tragedies may end,” the bishop said in the video statement.

Perry — a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence — was instrumental in helping to launch End Gun Violence Michigan, a grassroots group credited with helping the gun safety laws pass. The group is credited with helping two of the anti-gun violence legislation packages pass in Michigan.

One year after a mass shooting killed three students and injured five others at Michigan State University on Feb. 13, 2023, “The Rock,” a boulder on Michigan State’s campus that serves as a community landmark, is painted with a tribute to the deceased: Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner. Photo: Michigan State University/Facebook

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the gun safety measures into law in response to two mass shootings that have occurred in schools since she became governor in 2019, the one at Michigan State and another in 2021 at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, north of Detroit.

At Oxford High School, a student murdered four students and injured seven other people, including a teacher. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus an additional 24 years in December 2023. The shooter’s parents have both been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. A week ago, a jury found Jennifer Crumbley guilty on all four counts, one for each of the victims. James Crumbley will be tried in March. 

On average, 1,187 Michiganders die annually from gun violence, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Feb. 13, nationwide 4,778 people have died from gun violence this year, including 44 from mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is any shooting in which at least four people are shot. Still, most U.S. gun deaths are suicides.

End Gun Violence Michigan’s website includes fact sheets and resources about the state’s new gun safety laws.

Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun safety legislation dating to 1976 here.

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry moderated a “Faith Leadership for Gun Violence Prevention” panel session at a virtual gun violence prevention summit on Jan. 30, 2024. During the Jan. 29-30 summit, Michigan legislators, gun-safety experts and faith leaders discussed the state’s three new gun safety laws, which will go into effect on Feb. 13. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] Leaders from the Diocese of Michigan joined state legislators and gun-safety experts in a gun violence prevention summit Jan. 29-30 in Detroit to discuss the state’s three new gun safety laws, which will go into effect in February.

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry and Vicki Schroeder, a social justice advocate and parishioner at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Saugatuck, Diocese of Western Michigan, both were instrumental in launching End Gun Violence Michigan, a grassroots group credited with helping the gun safety laws pass. Perry — who is also a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence — co-led a Jan. 30 panel titled “Faith Leadership for Gun Violence Prevention,” with the Very Rev. Chris Yaw, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, and other local faith leaders. Perry also moderated a panel welcoming Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist at the summit’s opening session a day earlier. 

“[End Gun Violence Michigan] is a multifaceted movement with a variety of groups that were doing good work before, but doing amazing work now that we’re working together,” Perry told Episcopal News Service on Jan. 30. “Advocating for gun safety is a way of respecting the dignity of every human being.”

About 1,100 people registered for the virtual summit, according to Perry and organizers from End Gun Violence Michigan, which co-sponsored the summit with the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and other gun safety advocacy organizations.

The summit’s panel discussions included experts addressing how teachers, law enforcement, health care professionals, community organizers and activists can implement Michigan’s new gun safety laws, which were signed in 2023. Panelists also discussed the new gun safety laws in the contexts of youth advocacy, suicide prevention, community violence intervention and community activism. Speakers and panelists included U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and others.

One of the new laws includes requiring universal background checks for gun purchase. The same law also requires that guns be locked in storage. Michigan also established a red flag law — also known as an extreme risk law or temporary transfer law — which gives law enforcement agencies the authority to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who “could be dangerous.” Currently, 21 states have implemented some sort of red flag law.

Additionally, anyone convicted of domestic violence is no longer allowed access to firearms for eight years after finishing their sentence.

“This sensible legislation is not about gun control, but about the people of Michigan making clear that we all want to be safer,” Perry said.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the gun safety measures into law in response to two mass shootings that have occurred in schools since she became governor in 2019, one in 2023 at Michigan State University in East Lansing and another in 2021 at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, north of Detroit. All three new laws will go into effect on Feb. 13, the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Michigan State.

“These aren’t Democratic values, and these aren’t Republican values. I think these are gospel values,” Perry said. “These are pragmatic policies for safer gun ownership and preventing avoidable deaths.”

The summit took place while Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, is standing trial for her alleged role in the shooting. She and her husband, James Crumbley, have pleaded not guilty to four charges of involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, both parents face up to 15 years in prison. James Crumbley’s trial is scheduled for March.

“As people of faith who have seen how God has worked to bring about justice through the meager things that we offer, we need to serve as a real inspiration and a reminder to reclaim the truth of the message of justice,” Yaw said during the “Faith Leadership for Gun Violence Prevention” panel session. “With gun violence and gun safety, we need to pave a way to reclaim justice with peace.”

On average, 1,187 Michiganders die annually from gun violence, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Jan. 30, nationwide 3,253 people have died from gun violence this year, including 32 from mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is any shooting in which at least four people are shot. Still, most U.S. gun deaths are suicides.

“Every single death from a gun is avoidable; this is a uniquely American way to die,” Perry said. 

Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun safety legislation dating to 1976 here.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

The interfaith Saving Lives: Ending Gun Violence coalition gathered Nov. 14 and 15, 2023, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to protest gun violence. Photo: Jason Smith

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Benjamin Gildas, rector of Incarnation Holy Sacrament Episcopal Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, is no stranger to gun violence. In 2015, he lost one of his closest friends, a U.S. Army veteran, when the friend publicly shot and killed someone and then took his own life with a handgun.

“He was not the same after his second tour in Iraq,” Gildas told Episcopal News Service. “I was in shock, but when I thought about it, I thought about how different he had been, and I wonder what more we could have done to give him the care he obviously needed for his PTSD and for whatever mental health damage had been done with his time over there.”

Gildas said the experience has helped shape the way he preaches about gun violence at church. When he learned that an interfaith coalition was holding an anti-violence gathering Nov. 14 and 15 in the state capital, Harrisburg, Gildas knew he wanted to join fellow Episcopalians from across Pennsylvania as they protested gun violence.

Nineteen days before the two-day event started, a man shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, where Gildas’ 12-year-old daughter lives.

“It just reinforced my passion for wanting to work on these issues, on a state and local level, which is where we really need to do the most work,” he said.

Bishops in the state’s five Episcopal dioceses have been leading voices in the interfaith coalition, Saving Lives: Ending Gun Violence. 

Its “faith in action” event started Nov. 14 with a demonstration of guns being melted and formed into garden tools, followed by an evening interfaith prayer service at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral. The next day began with an interfaith prayer breakfast, featuring local and state officials discussing gun reforms that were recently passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 

Leaders from 15 different faith traditions, from Baha’i to reform Judaism, participated, including bishops from the Episcopal dioceses of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

“Ecumenical and interfaith [coalitions] are important, because unity around the issue of gun violence is super important,” Central Pennsylvania Bishop Audrey Scanlan told ENS. “Faither leaders from all kinds of backgrounds are saying, from our faith perspective, enough is enough. We need action to save lives from gun violence, and when we do it together, it’s louder. It’s more visible. It makes more of a statement.”

On average, 1,600 Pennsylvanians die from gun violence every year, and an additional 3,000 are injured, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Nov. 16, 37,690 people in the United States have died from gun violence this year, including 21,120 from suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States.

“I think a lot of times we people aren’t as aware of how much of an issue suicide is or how much of the gun deaths that happen every year in our country are from people taking their own lives, Gildas said.”

Currently, 21 states have implemented some sort of temporary transfer law — also known as extreme risk laws or red flag laws — but Pennsylvania isn’t one of those states. Under temporary transfer laws, law enforcement agencies have the authority to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who are deemed an “imminent risk of causing harm to themselves or others.”

“We need to help people understand that guns can’t solve the gun problem,” said the Rev. Martha Harris, advocacy committee chair of Saving Lives: Ending Gun Violence and priest-in-charge of Saint Paul Episcopal Church in Columbia and Saint Luke Episcopal Church in Mount Joy.

“It’s going to take an all-hands-on-deck effort, and the faith community cannot sit silently by. They’ve got to be directly involved with their congregations – with their public voices on the pulpit – to help people understand that we’re not anti-gun,” Harris told ENS. “We’re anti-murder, anti-loss of innocent lives, and we are pro-safety. God wants us to love one another as he loves us. We can’t be good neighbors if we’re killing each other.”

Even though fewer hunting licenses are purchased every year, recreational hunting is still a significant activity in Pennsylvania. Scanlan told ENS that the coalition’s goal is not to take guns away from hunters, but rather to ensure that those firearms are safely secured when not in use and to keep them away from people who would be flagged under a temporary transfer law.

“You can be a hunter and fill your freezer with venison for the winter. I’m still being a Christian who works for justice and peace and loves our neighbors ourselves. I don’t see those as opposing values,” she said.

After the prayer breakfast, participants gathered at the Pennsylvania State Capitol’s steps to recite the names of people who have lost their lives to gun violence. The recitation was followed by a “solemn procession” around the Capitol. The event concluded with an interfaith news conference in the Capitol Rotunda.

“Gun violence is an epidemic, and it needs to stop,” Gildas told ENS.

In March, the five Pennsylvania dioceses’ bishops rallied inside the Capitol in Harrisburg to push for gun reforms at the state level, reflecting The Episcopal Church’s long history of advocating for gun-safety measures in the United States. In 2022, General Convention approved a resolution calling for “investment in evidence-based community violence intervention programs and strategies that address gun violence as a public health issue; improve physical environments; strengthen anti-violence social norms; engage and support youth; reduce substance abuse; mitigate financial stress; reduce the harmful effects of the justice process; and confront the proliferation of guns.” Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez proposed the resolution.

Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun control and gun safety prevention legislation dating to 1976 here.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Crosses bearing the names of the victims, flowers, toys and other objects were left last May in the aftermath of the deadliest U.S. school mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Photo: Veronica G. Cardenas via REUTERS

[Episcopal News Service] May 24 marked one year since 19 children and two adults were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a city with a predominantly Latino population located 54 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Most of the victims were Catholic, but the shooting impacted the entire city of approximately 15,000 people. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church & School, Uvalde’s only Episcopal church, observed the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting with public prayer services, art therapy, a butterfly release and more.

“At this time, on the first anniversary of the school shooting at Robb Elementary, our efforts as a diocese are solely focused on caring for the community of Uvalde and supporting the people who are still living in the midst of this grief,” West Texas Bishop David Reed said in a statement to Episcopal News Service.

Reed and his wife Patti Reed visited Uvalde on the anniversary to support St. Philip’s parishioners and join them in community outreach “as a memorial to those who died and as a commitment to the work of reducing gun violence.”

St. Philip’s opened to the community at 10 a.m. local time for prayer and reflection. Parishioners and other attendees gathered at the church’s labyrinth for a butterfly release at 11:32, the hour and minute the shooting started, which was followed by the church bell ringing at 12:49 p.m., the hour and minute the shooting ended. Reed offered prayers and rang the church’s bell. Other Episcopal churches in the West Texas diocese rang their bells at the same time in support of St. Philip’s and the Uvalde community, including Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Lockhart and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church & School in San Antonio. The Bishop Jones Center in San Antonio, home of West Texas’ diocesan offices, also rang its bell at 12:49 p.m. in solidarity.

In the afternoon, Patti Reed led an “art from the heart” therapy workshop for participants of all ages to learn to heal through creativity. A local artist, she has been hosting creativity and spirituality workshops and retreats in the West Texas diocese since Reed was elected suffragan bishop in 2006, and she frequently works with clergy and their spouses.

St. Philip’s concluded its day of remembrance with evening prayer and candle lighting officiated by its rector, the Rev. Michael Marsh. The liturgy can be read online.

As part of its continuing efforts to support the greater Uvalde community’s healing, St. Philip’s is currently remodeling rooms in one of its buildings to become a permanent branch of San Antonio-based nonprofit Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas, which assisted families of victims in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting. The bereavement center offers counseling and support to children and families mourning the death of loved ones.

“We’ve had a pretty large absence of mental health resources in town for a long time,” Marsh told ENS in October 2022. “I was trying to figure out how we could help. I talked to somebody, and they said, get a hold of the Bereavement Center because they do really good work. They’re a good organization with credible history.”

Uvalde’s mass shooting is the ninth-deadliest shooting in United States history, the third-deadliest school shooting and, overall, the deadliest in 2022, a year in which 646 total mass shootings occurred, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every incident of gun deaths in the United States. A mass shooting is any shooting in which at least four people are shot. So far in 2023, more than 200 mass shootings have occurred nationwide.

Days after turning 18, the gunman who attacked Robb Elementary School legally purchased two AR-15 rifles and 1,657 total rounds of ammunition, which is more than what a U.S. soldier carries into combat.

One week before Uvalde’s mass shooting anniversary, member bishops of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal Church bishops working to curtail gun violence, gathered in Washington, D.C., to listen to local gun control advocates and experts on community-based and data-driven methods to eradicate gun violence.

“We must do something as it’s our call not only as Christians, but as human beings, the Rev. Daniel Gutiérrez, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, told ENS at the conference. “I don’t want to hear about another mother, father, sister, brother crying, because someone’s lost. And we cannot just simply pray and hope it will go away, even though prayers are essential. We must do something. And if we come together as a community, I think we will find that way.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.