Dear People of God:

Tuesday will mark one year since the horrific shooting in Highland Park that claimed the lives of seven beloved children of God and injured 48 others. On that day, I will join the people of Highland Park to pray and worship, remembering those who were killed, honoring those whose lives were changed forever, and grieving the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our communities and our nation. You are invited to join us in person or in spirit.

In your prayers this weekend, please pray for the repose of the souls of Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo and for healing and wholeness for those who were injured. Pray, too, for the people of Trinity, Highland Park. The past year has been a very hard one for them and their community.

In the face of gun violence, I pray that God will give us strength to take action. In May, I traveled to Washington D.C. for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill with my colleagues in Bishops United Against Gun Violence. Together, we advocated for sensible gun violence prevention measures like universal background checks, restrictions on gun ownership by domestic abusers, and other policy proposals that can stop the bloodshed in our communities.

In my meetings with members of Congress and their staffers, including the office of Congressman Brad Schneider, who represents Highland Park and Illinois’s 10th District, I urged lawmakers to prioritize not only federal legislation, like the assault weapons ban, that will protect us from mass shootings, but also measures that will end the toxic mix of racism, gun violence and poverty that causes so many deaths on our streets. Here in Illinois, where our state gun laws are strong, federal legislation is particularly important to stop the illegal guns that come over our borders from nearby states with more lax regulations.

You can join me in taking action by using this action alert from the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations. It provides a sample letter and online tool you can use to write to Senators Durbin and Duckworth and your Congressional representative. Ask them to help us end the senseless grief and loss of God-given human potential caused by gun violence.

Beloved, may the God of hope bless us and sustain us now, and in every time of loss and sorrow, through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Peace and Blessings,

Bishop Paula E. Clark