Special Service for the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church

The Rev. Mark Ward
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville

Asheville, NC

July 28, 2008

I’d like to begin tonight with these words from the Rev. Forrest Church:

“How precious life is and how fragile. We know this as we rarely have before, deep within our bones we do. I am not certain how much more we know right now. Our minds imprinted with templates of horror, our hearts bereft with terrible losses, we face a newly uncertain future. The signposts have all been blown away.

“I am so grateful to see you, each and every one. How profoundly we need one another, especially now, but more than just now. We are not human beings because we think. We are human because we care. All true meaning is shared meaning. The only thing that can never be taken from us is the love we give away.”

Those are the words that Rev. Church, minister of All Souls Church in New York City, used to begin a service held seven years ago, the day after terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

There is much to say today, but I want to begin, as Forrest urges that we do, by just telling you that I love you, and I am grateful that you have come here today.

Our religious movement arose from a tradition grounded in freedom, reason and tolerance in religion, but our community is centered in love, love that finds inherent worth and dignity in every person exactly as they are, love that sees beyond division and difference, love that serves a vision of peace and justice. I am proud to serve this community, a community grounded in such a love.

In magnitude, the shooting yesterday at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, can’t compare to the catastrophe of 9/11. Only two are dead compared with the thousands buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

And yet in some ways for us this shooting was more fearsome.

What news reports tell us is that this was not an act of terror intended to make some geopolitical point, but an attack targeting a specific church, a sister church of ours, who, like us, is a community leader on behalf of a progressive vision of religion.

And, again, what news reports tell us is that the shooter did not choose this church at random. He chose it specifically because of who it is and what it stands for. More, undoubtedly, will unfold about the circumstances of that man’s life that led to that choice, but for Unitarian Universalists like us who share and celebrate those values at the center of our faith it is a sad and sobering moment.

First, I believe, we must begin by owning our sadness and our grief. The people of the Knoxville church who endured this terrible violation are people we know and care for. Especially we grieve for the families of Greg McKendry, a member of the Tennessee Valley church, and Linda Kraeger, a member of the Westside UU Church in Knoxville, who died as a result of their injuries.

I invite you to brief moment of silence as I light this candle in their honor.

Our hearts also go out to all those present in the Knoxville church on Sunday, especially the children, all of whom experienced such horrific violence. We come to church, as Bill Schulz suggested, to find a place of peace in a community of fellow seekers. We consecrate it by our presence here each Sunday, by our work for justice and by our commitment as a community of memory and hope.

After last Sunday, it will be hard for our friends in Knoxville to feel safe again in their space, and with them we grieve that loss as well. But we know that Tennessee Valley is a strong church. Members of the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry and representatives of our Thomas Jefferson District and the Unitarian Universalist Association are present to help them come to terms with and work through their grief. They are not and will not be alone in their misfortune.

It is at times like this that we remember that we as congregations are joined in covenant with each other. We are here for each other whatever may come. And to that end we have created this banner with the wording, “To the congregants of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, You are in our hearts.”

There will be copies available on the visitors table in Sandburg Hall after this service. I invite you to sign them, and we will deliver them to the church.

Yes, it’s true. We Unitarian Universalists have come face to face with just how scary the world can be sometimes. And for churches like ours it means we will have to give some new attention here to staying safe. There is a police officer here tonight, and we will spend some time soon evaluating how to protect ourselves. But we will not step back from the important work we are doing.

For all the good that we believe we do, for all the hope that we believe our movement holds, we know that there are people who do not see us that way. That is reason not to take down our signs or hide away in bunkers but to broadcast our message more widely.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the great South African anti-Apartheid leader, counseled that change does not come easily. “Liberation is costly,” he said. “It needs unity. We must hold hands and refuse to be divided.”

Liberating all people from hatred and fear will be a long time coming, sad to say. But it is humankind’s only hope. There is no choice, and it is our work. But there are also many allies to work with us. Some of them are here tonight, and we are grateful for your presence, and many more are present in this community and across the nation, indeed the world. What will be needed is the courage and commitment to stay the course, to stay focused on love and hope.

And when it comes to that, there is hardly a better example than Greg McKendry of the Knoxville church. Greg was active in many ways at the church, but on Sunday he had looked forward to a special day.

You see, Greg’s foster son, Taylor Bessette, had a lead role in the children’s musical being performed: Annie, Jr. Greg and his wife, Barbara, had taken in Taylor as a foster son only a few months before, and a number of church members had marveled at that: imagine a couple in their early 60s taking on a 16-year-old boy!

So, it was probably no surprise that it was Greg, a big man who was serving as an usher, who confronted the gunman.

Several members of the church have told the media what an amazing person Greg was, but perhaps the most meaningful is a video on the Web site of the Knoxville newspaper that is an interview with Taylor, Greg’s foster son.

Taylor told the interviewer that during the incident his father was “extremely brave,” that he was the one who stood in front of the gunman so he couldn’t get to the children.

 His father, Taylor told the reporter, “was a great, great man.”

“Make sure you tell people that my father was a hero” he said, “an absolute hero.