ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 20, 2007
Lutherans Provide Emotional, Spiritual Care at Virginia Tech
07-067-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Disaster Response, a
collaborative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, is
providing emotional and spiritual care at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va.,
after a lone gunman shot and killed 32 people there before
killing himself April 16.
"Our response will include outreach and spiritual and
emotional care for the campus community, the town of Blacksburg
and the surrounding area. It will also include spiritual and
emotional care for those beyond the borders of Virginia," said
Heather L. Feltman, executive director, Lutheran Disaster
Response, and director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response.
At the request of the Rev. James F. Mauney, bishop, ELCA
Virginia Synod, Salem, Lutheran Disaster Response "will be
hosting a series of consultations in early May with Lutheran
clergy and congregational leaders in the Blacksburg area to talk
about their congregational needs and to equip them for the
important task of counseling (people) affected by traumatic
grief. In addition, Lutheran Disaster Response has been invited
to be present at the ELCA Virginia Synod Assembly in June," said
Feltman.
"We who serve Virginia Tech can hardly express the thoughts
and emotions which the past few days have evoked," the Rev.
William H. King and the Rev. Joanna C. Stallings, Lutheran campus
pastors at Virginia Tech, wrote in an April 18 letter to their
ELCA campus ministry colleagues.
"Many have asked about our situation. Classes have been
dismissed until Monday (April 23). Nobody is sure what it is
going to be like when they begin again. Norris Hall has been
closed for the rest of the semester. This event is such a
singularity that nobody feels confident predicting how the
pastoral needs will develop. There is great concern that just
about the time the numbness of initial grief wears off students
will be dispersed from their primary support systems by summer
break. Our greatest challenge in campus ministry may well come
in the fall. Amidst it all we try to speak with honesty about
both the inexplicable nature of the tragedy and (the) hope that
is within us," they said.
King, who also serves as deployed staff of the Department
for Campus Ministry, ELCA Vocation and Education, delivered the
Christian message April 17 at the Virginia Tech Convocation where
students, faculty and others of the community gathered to
remember the victims of the shooting on campus.
Mauney and Jan Tobias, Lutheran Disaster Response
coordinator for Virginia, attended worship April 17 at Luther
Memorial Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation located across the
street from the university's campus. Tobias served as a campus
pastor at Virginia Tech, and his daughter is a Virginia Tech
alumna. He said the "idea of the Virginia Tech community being a
very close-knit one may seem cliche but (it) is very realistic."
During his visit Tobias and Mauney met with students and
others at Virginia Tech.
"We listened to the students. It is amazing to hear how the
relationships within even a large university cause rings of
associations to overlap; all are connected somehow -- close
friends, roommates with some of those killed. We listened and
watched as they cared for one another, made plans for the care of
one another. They are people of great talent and intelligence
founded upon faith," Mauney said, adding that professors spoke
about their students, about their colleagues and about their
families.
A group of students at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C.,
assembled for a group photo April 20 to express their support for
their counterparts on the Virginia Tech campus. The students
wore orange and maroon -- Virginia Tech's school colors -- as
they participated in a nationwide outpouring of support. Lenoir-
Rhyne will also hold a candlelight vigil on April 23 in memory of
those who died at Virginia Tech. Lenoir-Rhyne is one of 28
colleges and universities of the ELCA.
- - -
Audio of King's message at the Virginia Tech Convocation is
available at http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070417.mp3 on the
ELCA Web site.
Information about Luther Memorial Lutheran Church,
Blacksburg, Va., is available at http://www.lmlc.org on the
Internet.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
