What do we say when there are no words? Where do we find a solid center when the world is going crazy around us? Out of the depths we cry to you, O Lord! ---from A Ritual of Lament and Promise
Colorado, where I live, had yet another mass shooting, this one on Monday, March 22, 2021, when a gunman opened fire with a legal, semi-automatic AK-15-style weapon at a King Soopers grocery story in Boulder, Colorado. He killed 10 individuals in and around the store before he was apprehended by the police.
As we all wrestled with yet another mass shooting in Colorado, our church’s Vigils and Rituals Team designed a brief liturgy of grief, lament, and promise. Acknowledging that “thoughts and prayers” (and even lovely liturgies) are never enough, we still felt we needed to address this pain within the context of our worshipping community. And then urge the congregation, in whatever way, to take action. This Ritual of Lament and Promise is the result. It was done via our Zoom worship service the following Sunday, Palm Sunday.
I am very aware out of the many recent mass shootings, most notably the Atlanta shooting targeting Asian-Americans, and the FedEx shooting in Indianapolis that targeted Sikhs, that I focused on the one involving whites. I did so because this was a shooting close to home, and brought back for many of us in Colorado, strong feelings and memories from the Columbine High School shootings, and the Aurora Theater shootings.
The entire ritual is available as a PDF document. You also may see a video (below) of a section of the March 28, 2021, worship service at Washington Park United Church of Christ which used the ritual.