I drive by the Navy Reserve building on Amnicola Highway every day I go to work. So I prayed for whatever it was that caused police car after fire truck after ambulance to pass by me and divert traffic from my normal route that Thursday morning. I texted my colleague and a student I was to meet at the Hope House and said I'd be later, that something was going on, and then texted them back when I heard Chattanooga State was on lockdown and an active shooter in the area.
It was gathered around a TV together where we heard not Chattanooga State, the Navy Reserve. And the mall, Lee Highway, and two shooters. And then not Lee Highway, and not two shooters but one. With our eyes glued to the TV we heard the ambulances pulling into Erlanger only a stone's throw away from us and prayed, "Dear Lord, please be with these people." And selfishly, "Dear Lord, please don't let it be any of ours."
Hours later after the name of the shooter and the school and department he graduated from was released, after our board met and dispersed, a student came to the back door and into the kitchen. Hers is the face that continues to define what this shooting has meant to our community. Fear. Disbelief. Anger. Sadness. Desperate.
In the days that followed, we learned that our little community had been drastically affected by Thursday's horrific events, but it wasn't in any way any of us were prepared. Some of our students grew up with the shooter. Went to school with the shooter. Some worshiped with the shooter. Some were still friends with the shooter.
"Let's gather for hope at Hope."
We weren't large (a little under 30 folks) but we represented 5 different faiths and at least 4 different ethnicities. We acknowledged the space was Holy Space and now was the time to listen to one another. Our Muslim students shared how horrific it was to grow up and know a person who would do such heinous things. Other students asked them questions about Islam, about the personality of the shooter, and we as a community lifted our concerns, what gave us hope, and how we hoped to move forward with a candle lighting ritual.
There is a lot to say about the days since, but I think this is the most important: what gave many of us hope (faculty, pastors, and students alike) was that gathering. That we could sit with one another as Christians, as Muslims, as black, brown, and white, as people with different ideologies and politics. We could be honest and scared and angry - we could be authentic and still love and care for one another.
I think we are all still trying to figure out how to move forward, how to begin to put the pieces back together. But here is what I know to be true: this call of Jesus' for radical hospitality changes lives and communities, and the Holy Spirit is loose both in this ministry and in the hearts of our young people. We are a people of Hope.
Rev. Tricia Dillon Thomas
Interim Director of Spirituality at Hope House
808 Vine Street, Chattanooga, TN
First - Spring City
Rivermont - Chattanooga
Preteen Retreat 
UKirk (meaning University Church) is a network of ministries supported by the Presbyterian Church (USA) charged with reaching, loving, and teaching college students so that they may be lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.
Regarding Ruling Elders