Students, faculty and staff gathered for a service of prayer Tuesday, April 17 at the Elon Community Church in honor of the students and faculty who died in Monday’s shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. Details...
Rex Waters, associate dean of students, spoke as a member of the Virginia Tech community. Waters is a Tech alum and has a daughter who is currently in school there.
Click here to listen to Waters’ remarks:
Elon Chaplain Richard McBride offered a message titled “Praying for Others.” McBride said, “We pray for others because we must, if we are to know the truth of what it means for us and for them to be alive. Praying for others causes us to know that we are in this together.”
Click here to listen to McBride’s remarks:
After a single bell chimed for each person who died in the tragedy, prayers for those who died, those who survive and for Virginia Tech were offered after each verse of the hymn, “Shall We Gather at the River.”
“We acknowledge the impact that each of those who perished made on the world around them, and we are mindful today of how they will be missed by so many,” said Phil Smith, assistant chaplain and director of religious life. “We know that to grieve is to have loved and cared for another.”
Student Grace Dow offered a prayer for those who are left to grieve. “Oh God, you are above us, yet you are present here, and we ask you, we pray that you will accomplish what our words can’t. That you will bring comfort like a soft and steady rain, that you will pour out your mercy over us all.
“We pray that you will wrap them up in your love. We pray that you will help and heal them in this time of loss. We pray that you, who have known despair, will walk with them through the lowest valleys, that you will take their tears and water gardens, and so doing, you will transform this tragedy into a cause for brightest hope.”
Associate Provost Nancy Midgette prayed for Virginia Tech, its leaders, alumni and students. “We pray for those who grieve the loss of treasured faculty members, who were beloved colleagues and mentors. We ask your mercy to rest upon students who lost their classmates, their roommates, their sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, those with whom they attended church or spent their leisure time….Restore to the entire Virginia Tech community, we pray, the strength and vitality that characterize this great institution. Give them, in place of the wreath of sorrow, a garland of hope.”
Worshippers were each given a piece of fabric to write thoughts and prayers to the Virginia Tech community. The pieces will be attached to prayer flags that will be offered to Virginia Tech as a symbol of Elon’s solidarity with them during this time of tragedy.