Ever since the very first Bishop of Connecticut, who was also the very first bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, was ordained in the cathedral in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1784 [the Church of England would not ordain one of us because we were at war with King George III at the time], the Diocese of Connecticut has had a "companion relationship" with the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney. The current Scottish bishop has written a prayer today for the people of Connecticut:
Sustaining and redeeming God,
Sustaining and redeeming God,
In sadness and in the tragedy of
awful loss, we offer before you those young lives lost as a consequence of human
violence this past week.
We raise in the distress of this
time the families of whose children are no longer to share life and joy with
them.
We mourn those other families
also fractured by the needless killings of that day.
As Jesus first came to his people
and lives of the young and innocent were lost in the cruelty of one individual
upon others, so now 2000 years on we stand alongside those whose similar grief
is beyond our imagining.
Holy and loving God bring all
consolation that can be brought to those most in need of your presence today,
and never cease to make your presence real in this their hour of need.
To you we voice this prayer,
Amen.
Also, if you would, this comes from our own diocese concerning one of the departed, who was, with his family, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown:
Please pray for young Ben Wheeler who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School and for his family, father David, mother Francine, and brother.
Also, if you would, this comes from our own diocese concerning one of the departed, who was, with his family, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown:
Please pray for young Ben Wheeler who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School and for his family, father David, mother Francine, and brother.