Message following the shootings at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh

Bishop Skip Adams offered a video message on October 28 following the attack at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that left at least 11 people dead. A transcript of the video is here: 

Dear People of God in South Carolina, as is mine I know your hearts are torn and your minds are reeling in response to the horrifics acts of hatred and bigotry as they were perpetrated in the synagogue in Pittsburgh.

​As I visited with the people of St. Stephen's, North Myrtle Beach this morning, we prayed together for the victims, for their families, for all who respond to them, and also spoke of how we ned to be a people who are reaching across all kinds of barriers for those, and to those, who are different from us, to show the way of love to which Jesus calls us.

These things strike awful close to home as we continue to remember the people of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston.

​If you are in a communtiy that has a a synagogue, if you have Jewish friends, I hope you will especially reach out to them in care and concern. Find ways to pray with them, for them, and perhaps you can find other ways  for all victims of hatred and bigotry to talk about a new way, a new possibilty, a new hope, a new way of being.

It seems appropriate at this time to share with one another the Shema, the great Jewish prayer spoken before and at the end of worship, and before bedtime each nite, and we share that prayer with our Jewish sisters and brothers:  -- Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. --

We know it to be so, and may we share in solidarity with those who are grieving and are hurting this night. Blessings to you all, and thank you.