I’m human enough to give heartfelt thanks that none of the Londoners I know was harmed by this morning’s terror bombings. For those who will endure long years suffering the effects of those attacks — whether in their flesh, in their spirit, or in the heartsickness of an absent love — we’ll keep you in our hearts and prayers.
When tumult forces itself upon us, the church bears a special responsibility to respond out of its compassion and patience, out of the knowledge of a depth that comes to expression not in threadbare imprecations, but in gentleness and constancy. Our worship and our proclamation enact a hope that outshines any gloom that grim spite stirs up, and that hope is the church’s distinct gift to share with a world that stakes its future only on fluctuating configurations of temporal power, that sacrifices the lives of God’s children on the altar of domination. Grace and peace be with every reader who comes here, and may grace and peace prevail in our reactions to every death-dealing fury that assails us.
I’ve opened comments on a post on the Holy Innocents church blog asking for prayers for the people of London. Also I’ve been keeping an eye on the Flickr London Bomb Blast group.