Covenant Presbyterian Church

Weekend Update

from Jessica Patchett 

Friday, June 19, 2015 

Dear friends,

 

I haven't been able to think about much else.

 

Yesterday morning, after spending nearly two hours wading through waves of grief, anger and fear for our future, I knew I had to get dressed for the day. And I wondered, 'What on earth should I wear?'.

 

My first inclination was to put on all black. I was in mourning. Surely everyone else would be in mourning. It would be a quiet day, a somber day, a day in which we could all be real about how terrifying it all is.

 

A kid -- maybe on drugs, maybe mentally ill, absolutely steeped in an inheritance of racism, electronically blessed and commissioned by a known hate group, equipped with a deadly weapon by someone who knew him well -- became a terrorist right in our backyard.

 

Our Charlotte neighbors lost aunts, mothers, cousins and friends in the attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. And the rest of us lost the ability to go about our business as if racism, mental illness, drugs and guns aren't our problems.

 

As Christians, setting aside time for mourning and lament allows us to weep and be sad, get in tune with how grave situations really are and allow our souls to tell us how sorrowful we are about things.

 

And times of mourning and lament can be even more than this.

 

If we are willing to slow our pace of life and cancel a few things on our calendars, we find that in times of mourning and lament, we search and pray, discover within us a healthy sense of anger or passion, and talk with others about how to channel that internal sense of conviction into peace-making action.

 

On Sunday, we'll gather as we do each week to remember God's good and sacred gift of life; give thanks that whether we live or die, we are in God's hands; and sing hymns that boldly proclaim that we have a future of peace, well-being, reconciliation and redemption.

Rev. Richard Boyce, Academic Dean of Union Presbyterian Seminary, Charlotte campus, will be preaching (Scripture passages: I Samuel 17:32-49; Mark 4:32-41), and we will pray for each other, our society, and our world.

 

I hope you'll join me and lend your presence as a witness to hope and peace,

 

Jessica Patchett