Today we are reeling from the news of the senseless and evil violence done to the innocent worshipers at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Our elder sisters and brothers in Judaism are God’s Chosen people and nothing will separate them from the Covenant their ancestors made with Holy and Living One.

I ask Episcopalians across Rhode Island to please add this prayer to God asking for rest for the departed (El Maleh Rachamim) to your service on this Sunday.

God, filled with mercy, dwelling in the heavens’ heights, bring proper rest beneath the wings of your Divine Presence, amid the ranks of the holy and the pure, illuminating like the brilliance of the skies the souls of our beloved and our blameless who went to their eternal place of rest. May You who are the source of mercy shelter them beneath Your wings eternally, and bind their souls among the living, that they may rest in peace. And let us say: Amen.

There is work to be done to heal our nation and our communities, but this weekend, I ask you to begin with this prayer for our neighbors who were killed and as a sign of our intention to stand beside them in this dark moment.

+Nicholas

The Right Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely SOSc
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island