We continue our reflection on God’s call to us through the ELCA’s “60-Day Journey Toward Justice in a Culture of Gun Violence.”
DAY 47: LWF Shares Pain, Prayers, and Solidarity over Las Vegas Shooting
The following story was published March 10, 2017, on the website of the Lutheran World Federation. The ELCA is a partner in the LWF’s interconnected communion of churches.
“The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has expressed its solidarity and pledged prayers for those directly affected and to the entire American people following the Sunday night shooting in Las Vegas, United States, in which 59 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured.
“‘It pains us, as your communion of churches to see your people repeatedly drawn into this deadly spiral, having to cope again and again with shootings and violence,’ LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr. Martin Junge wrote to Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
“Noting the shocking recurrence of such events and the vulnerability and fear they cause, Junge prayed that the ELCA will continue to find words ‘of both comfort and justice that help process and interpret this terrible event, and reconnect people with their sources of hope.’
“Citing Isaiah 2:4, the general secretary prayed that the church and the people would hold fast to the vision of God’s gift of peace. ‘He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’”