Dear Friends,

I recently returned from the 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which is currently meeting in Austin, Texas. This triennial gathering, made up of clergy and lay deputies and bishops, meets to discuss and pass legislation for the larger church. Amidst all the legislative hearings and debate, there is also time for worship and witnessing. On Sunday July 8, many of us gathered outside the convention hall for a vigil against gun violence. After that gathering, over 900 of us traveled in buses to the Huto Residential Center, outside of Austin, a federal detention center housing women immigrants – some of whom are still separated from their children.

We read about and discuss terms like “gun violence” and “immigration polices,” and such terms can have an abstract quality to them.  But all issues that are political have profound personal implications. At the vigil against gun violence, we listened to moving testimony from the family of Carmen Schentrup, one of the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shootings in Parkland, Florida. Camen was an active member of her youth group at  St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, Florida. Her father spoke eloquently about God’s weeping over the violence that took his daughter’s life, and about our call to end such violence.You can read more about the Schentrups and their witness here.

Then, at the detention center, though we were somewhat far off from the facility, we could make out the hands of women in the center, waving to us with hands and cloths, expressing gratitude for our solidarity with them You can read more about the public witness at the detention center here

We know that when any issue or policy is given a human face, we are forced to move beyond the abstract, and to consider the personal consequences of policy decisions. I was humbled by the witness of the Schentrup family, who though still in the midst of profound grief, are calling Christians  to hear the words of the prophets and of Jesus, and to lay down our swords and spears. And I was moved by the silent witness of women waving their hands, reminding me of my call to see beyond policy debates to the persons who are directly affected by the decisions we make and the votes we cast. All political decisions have profound personal implications. Our civic responsibility as citizens should aways be informed by the ethics of our faith. Perhaps the words of Carmen’s father, Philip Schentrup, are the best way to end this letter:

“God gave us free will, the ability to do good, to be complacent, to inflict harm. God gave us the prophets, his son and the Holy Spirit to show us the way. God wants us all to live into his path of love and kindness. I realized that God’s plan was simple. He gave us the ability to choose to love and to care for one another, and he taught us how to do it. Evil and violence happen in this world because we allow it, not because God allows it. We suffer violence because we collectively allow it. God is waiting for us to choose to make the world he wants.”

Faithfully,

Tom