Bishop Carter Offers a Prayer of Lament in Response to the Mass Shootings in Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and Uvalde

By: Bishop Ken Carter, Resident Bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church

May 24, 2022

Almighty God,
our prayers rise like incense.
When we cry out to you,
the Psalms teach us,
you answer.
 
The massacres of the innocent,
in Buffalo, in Laguna Woods,
in Uvalde are known to you.
 
Our schools, our churches,
our supermarkets are pierced
by violence, racism and hatred.
 
We sit now in the darkness
of yet another grief, and
we cannot be complacent.
 
We are our sister’s keepers,
our brother’s keepers.
 
We pray for those who have lost so much.
We pray for those motivated by a culture of death.
We pray for the anger that we harbor within ourselves. 
 
And, as we pray,
We know that we can and must act.
 
We name those
who have been murdered.
 
We seek the development of sane gun laws, and we honor governmental leaders with the courage to enact them.
 
And we commit ourselves to the way
of Jesus Christ, who is our peace,
and who has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that is between us.
 
He is our judge and our hope.
 
Come, Lord Jesus.
May our swords become plowshares,
may our killing fields blossom into a garden.
 
Guide our feet into the way of peace.
 
Amen.
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The Peace of the Lord,
+Bishop Ken Carter
Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church