In expressing his shock and sadness at the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut, The Rt Rev Dr Robert Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney (whose Diocese has a companion link with the Diocese of Connecticut) says “On hearing the tragic news from Newton I spoke with the Bishop of Connecticut to express our sadness and offer the thoughts and prayers from the Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney and from the whole of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Our prayers and thoughts are with all those families whose lives have been shattered by this terrible tragedy”:
Sustaining and redeeming God,
In sadness and in the tragedy of awful loss, we offer before you those young lives lost as a consequence of human violence.
We raise in the distress of this time the families of whose children are no longer to share life and joy with them.
We mourn those other families also fractured by the needless killings.
As Jesus first came to his people, and lives of the young and innocent were lost in the cruelty of one individual upon others, so now 2000 years on we stand alongside those whose similar grief is beyond our imagining.
Holy and loving God bring all consolation that can be brought to those most in need of your presence today, and never cease to make your presence real in this their hour of need.
To you we voice this prayer, Amen.
