From Bishop David,

Harvey Milk was a Gay Activist and Public Servant (Member of SF Board of Supervisors). Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated on November 27, 1978. Harvey received innumerable death threats and on one occasion he expressed to his family these words (paraphrase), "When the bullet goes through me may it also go through all the closets which exist and bring them down." He believed that the LGBTQ Community must come out of the closet to family and friends and work mates, and the like, and in doing so the world would begin to change. 1978 wasn't that long ago and with the horrific mass shooting in Orlando perhaps we are led to wonder to what extent we have evolved and grown since then. And by that I mean, how far have we (the human family) come in "bringing down the walls which divide" (to be scriptural about it)? I simply want to write in this space how I continue to be amazed at the courage, the perseverance and the patience of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers. And so as the Church, we are compelled to pray (and the praying about which I write must reflect how Jesus considered prayer and many others after him, including Pope Francis), "You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works." We pray for our LGBTQ sisters and brothers which means we pray for ourselves because our prayers are for the entire human family. And we pray that division and separation and all the walls which have been built and continue to be built must come down. We must bring them down. Our active prayers must bring them down. There is no place in the Jesus Movement for walls. Jesus himself was the example and the personification of open space where walls once existed.

I pray EDSJ that our prayers will be many and our responses will be many as well.