Dear people of EDUSC,

It is with the deepest sadness that we ask again for prayers for victims of recently multiplying gun violence. Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and four Dallas police officers and one Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer have been killed in an atmosphere of fear and hatred. It is absolutely critical that we not respond to hatred and fear with violence, but with love. Prayer plays a major role in spreading the love of God throughout the human community. Love is also action. Love is not remaining silent when injustice invades our culture and steals the lives of family members and loved ones. Love is taking a stand against violence as the status quo. Please pray with all your hearts for a new spirit of resistance against gun violence. We must do everything we can to prevent our brothers and sisters from dying needlessly.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

~The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Your brother in Christ,

+Charles

The Rt. Rev. Charles F. Duvall, Assisting Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina