Mother Emanuel – a special The Pastoral is Political

As the news of a shooting at Emanuel AME Church began to circulate on social media last night, members of RevGalBlogPals posted on Facebook asking for prayers for “Mother Emanuel.” Today our bloggers have called pastors and the church to action and offered cries of lament. This special edition of The Pastoral is Political excerpts and links to some of those blog posts. Please click through and leave comments to let the writers know they are not alone in their outrage and grief.

RevGals contributor Denise Anderson calls out “allies” ~

At this point, I’m not interested in your listening. I think the danger in this listening posture is, while it seems like the mindful and conscientious thing to do, it can also be far too convenient. It’s a great way of doing nothing. For the sake of finding the right action, you take no action instead. We have had the benefit of years — centuries, literally — of thought, narrative, scholarship, literature, film, fiction, non-fiction, and discussion to help us all understand these issues. We’re the most connected and information-overloaded that human beings have ever been. We can transmit entire books to our hand-held devices. Class has been in session. The school bell has now rung.

Read more at her blog, Soula Scriptura.

Longtime ring member and seminary professor, the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, calls us to a deeper understanding of the body of Christ ~

We should not have to tell you, we should not have to teach you, that we are the very image of God. You should see God when you see us.

Read more at wilgafney.com.

Author and blogger, the Rev. Rachel Hackenberg, laments ~

I will not cry out to God today
who is otherwise occupied
in the corner
nursing his shame.
God knows he has failed
and I will not assuage his guilt
with prayers…

Read more of “The Collapse of Eden” here.

President of the RevGalBlogPals board, the Rev. Julia Seymour, offers a prayer of intercession ~

Holy Mary, mother of a brown son,
Mother who feared for his well-being,
Mother who tasted terror when he left your side-
Pray for us.

Holy Mary, mother of a brown man,
Mother who demanded his respect,
Mother who knew the power of God-
Pray for us.

Read the complete prayer at her blog, Faith, Grace and Hope.

Longtime RevGal the Rev. Teri Peterson admits her privilege as a white person, then asks who we mean when we use the word “Our” ~

We use the word “our” to describe people all the time. They’re our people–people with whom we share ideals. They’re our kids–kids who live nearby, go to neighborhood schools, sit in the same pews we do. They’re our troops–who put their lives on the line to “protect our freedom.”

But for some reason we neglect to use the word our when we talk about children killed by police at the playground. We don’t say that Trayvon or Tamir or Michael are our kids. We also neglect to use it when we talk about people who commit acts of violence. Dylann Roof isn’t one of ours. 

If one member of the Body suffers, all suffer together with it.

How is it, again, that we, of all people, THE CHURCH, are capable of using the word “they”??

Read the rest at her blog, Clever Title Here.

Finally, we offer the beginning of our Thursday Prayer, written by the Rev. Erin Counihan.

O God,
Your nine beloved ones lost.
Gunned down.
This tragedy, this terror, this hate.
In Your house.
In Your sanctuary.
We weep, we scream, we shake, we cry out.
We can’t handle it.
We can’t imagine it.
How can this be?

Read the rest of her prayer here.

If you are blogging about the terrible losses at Mother Emanuel, or preparing liturgy for Sunday with this tragedy in mind, please share a link in the comments below. There are many other powerful articles and prayers on the web; this is a sampling from our web ring.

The leadership of RevGalBlogPals offers prayers for Mother Emanuel, and for all who lost pastors, family members and friends in this tragic act of violence and terror.