Photo by Erin Nelson
People gather at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, Alabama, on Friday, June 17, 2022, for a vigil for the victims and families of a shooting at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia HIlls, Alabama, on Thursday, June 16, 2022.
Less than 24 hours after a gunman opened fire inside the church she helps lead, killing three of her friends, Becky Bridges, associate rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, prayed for the assailant.
“We pray for the person who perpetrated the shooting,” Bridges said in a recorded prayer on Friday from London, where she was receiving some professional training. “We pray that you’ll work in that person’s heart. We pray that you’ll help us forgive as we have been forgiven.
“Give us a sense of compassion, even for those whom it is most difficult for us to have compassion on,” Bridges said.
Bridges is one of several Episcopalian leaders who has interceded for the people of St. Stephen’s. On Thursday, June 16, a gunman who was attending a small group potluck dinner pulled out a handgun and began firing, police said, killing three people: 84-year-old Walter “Bart” Rainey, Irondale, 75-year-old Sarah Yeager, Pelham, and Jane Pounds, 84, of Hoover.
The gunman was later identified and charged with capital murder in the three deaths.
“Lord, we are broken,” Bridges said. “We are brokenhearted this day, but we know in our brokenness, you are with us. In these cracks in our hearts, your love overflows to our community.”
Bridges also prayed for state and national leaders to take notice of what happened at the Cahaba Heights church, as well as other recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo.
“We pray … that hearts will be changed, minds will be opened, and that our culture will change and that our laws will change in ways that will protect all of us,” Bridges said.
After a vigil Friday morning at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, the Rt. Rev. Glenda Curry, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, said when Christians are slapped, they “try to reach out in love,” and said she was proud of her people for “hitting their knees right away.”
“We preach the gospel of Jesus, which is what we try to do daily,” Curry said. “We’re people of hope.”
During the vigil, Curry reminded parishioners of their hope in God.
“In a world that seems hopeless, help us to remember that our hope rests always in you, and in the resurrection of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ,” Curry said.
Even when the words won’t come amidst the brokenness, God is still present, Curry said.
“Silence is at the center of our faith because silence is really God’s lap,” Curry said. “God will hold us in the lap of God’s love. He will hold us and love us and heal us. We are so sad and so angry and so shocked and so disappointed in so many things, and so disoriented.
“But God is with us, and only God’s love can heal us like we need to be healed.”
God’s people gathering together and having faith is how Christians respond when “the world falls apart,” Curry said.
“We trust; we look forward in hope and we love each other,” Curry said. “And we walk through it, minute by minute, and breathe the best we can, because Jesus will lead us to resurrection. Jesus will make all things new. And right now, Jesus is weeping with us and hurting with us and praying for us.”
The rector of St. Stephen’s, the Rev. John Burruss, returned to Alabama from a pilgrimage in Greece. In one of several letters written to the church, Burruss said, “As a people of faith, we hold on to the truth that darkness does not have the final word—the light and love of God do.”
Burruss called Rainey, Yeager and Pounds “pillars” of the community, and said when the church gathers together, they will do so “at the table that was the center of (their) lives.”
“We will gather at the table that has taught so many that love is always breaking through in this world, no matter what we experience, whether it be doubt, anger, loss, grief, or death—but yet also joy and life,” Burruss said. “We will gather at the table that has always been open to everyone. This is what we do as a people of faith. We gather together to know and remind each other that God is with us.”
During the vigil at Saint Luke’s, as parishioners wept and prayed and consoled one another, the lyrics of an old hymn rang out across the crowd:
“It is well, with my soul. It is well, with my soul. It is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
And a newer song reminded those present of the hope that their sadness will one day turn to joy:
“It won’t be long; we will behold him. And every tear, he’ll wipe away. We’ll be at home, the war will be over, and soon, we will meet our savior face to face.”
