“You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other
commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 31.
Dear Friends,
As I have
paused to pray about the horrific events in Orlando , these words from Mark’s Gospel came
into my heart. Because of these words,
acts of hatred toward a specific group of people cause fear, doubt, and leave
us with a sense of wondering when hatred and violence will ever come to an
end. When so many lives are senselessly
and so violently taken, it shakes us to our core because we wonder if love will
ever fully be understood.
Times like
these cause us to ask who is our neighbor, and respond with even more
conviction that Jesus calls us to love everyone, regardless of age, race,
ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, or sexual identity. All over the world, tributes of bright and
beautiful colours seek to honour those affected and remind us that love is
stronger than hate. And so, we are left
to ask, how do we continue to embrace inclusivity and work for justice so that
our communities are safe places for all?
I believe
that one of the ways we can not only show solidarity, but be active in the
pursuit of love and justice is through Affirm United—ensuring that our
churches, presbyteries and conference are safe places where dialogue can happen
and networking can continue to bring people together. Prayer has a very important role in our
lives, but sometimes, action is the best prayer we can utter. And so, yes, continue to pray for the people
and communities affected. Continue to
pray for the murderer and all those who resort to violence. But also act…my friends, now more than ever,
is the time for us to be courageous and remind people that our faith is based
in love, not hate, in harmony, not dissidence, in believing that we work better
together, rather than apart. Yes, each
of us knows that we are different, but let us continue to believe that it is in
our differences that we find solidarity, and in faith in God that we find we
are each made in God’s image.
Blessings as we continue to work for love and justice,
Rev. Catherine Stuart
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