{"id":2823,"date":"2012-12-14T13:45:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T21:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=2823"},"modified":"2012-12-14T17:00:30","modified_gmt":"2012-12-15T01:00:30","slug":"church-serves-as-help-site-in-shooting-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/church-serves-as-help-site-in-shooting-wake\/","title":{"rendered":"Church serves as help site in shooting wake"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman holds a child as people line up to enter the Newtown United Methodist Church near the scene of an elementary school shooting on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn. According to reports, there are at least 27 dead after a gunman opened fire in at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter was also killed. A web-only photo by Douglas Healey\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

A UMNS Report by United Methodist News Service*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Members of\u00a0Newtown United Methodist Church<\/a>\u00a0in Sandy Hook, Conn., are \u201cstill holding our breath\u201d to learn the full impact of the Dec. 14 shooting at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, said the Rev. Mel Kawakami, the church\u2019s senior pastor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep our lines open,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have already tried to reach out. We have communications circles that are trying to canvass our congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 27 are dead, including 18 children, according to the\u00a0most recent news reports<\/a>, in what is already one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The shooting came less than a week after a gunman killed two holiday shoppers across the country at an Oregon mall.<\/p>\n

The Sandy Hook, Conn., church \u2014 which has about 600 members \u2014 is within walking distance of the elementary school. Kawakami said the church already is serving as a respite center for Red Cross first responders, and its sanctuary is open for prayer. The church also plans a prayer vigil at 7 p.m. EST Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the midst of Advent, and the light is coming,\u201d Kawakami said. \u201cAnd we are praying for the light.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Obama struggled with emotion in addressing with the tragedy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. Each time I hear the news, I react not as president, but as a parent. That\u2019s especially the case today,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of the victims were between 5 and 10 years of age. They had their entire lives ahead of them. \u00a0\u2026 Our hearts are broken today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prayers and reactions began appearing on social media right after the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago, on a Holy Land tour, I visited Rachel’s tomb. People of all ages surrounded her tomb weeping and praying for their children,\u201d wrote Deen Thompson, lay leader of Edgehill United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., on Facebook. \u201cToday this experience and words from the Bible become today’s reality. \u2018A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more.\u2019 God help us…\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rev. Beth A. Richardson, editor of \u201cAlive Now<\/a>\u201d magazine, published by Upper Room, offered this prayer:\u00a0\u201cLoving God, comfort your people in the midst of the tragedy of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Comfort all who mourn, God of Healing. We pray to you, Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Methodist Church is offering a\u00a0prayer wall on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The denomination\u2019s communications agency, United Methodist Communications, also is planning to place messages of support and hope in local newspapers.<\/p>\n

The United Methodist Board of Discipleship is offering\u00a0resources for parents, teachers, and caregivers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, the United Methodist Publishing House\u2019s Ministry Matters site has a resource page, \u201cWhen Tragedy Strikes Children<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

*Heather Hahn, Joey Butler and Barbara Dunlap-Berg with United Methodist News Service contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman holds a child as people line up to enter the Newtown United Methodist Church near the scene of an elementary school shooting on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn. According to reports, there are at least 27 dead after a gunman opened fire in at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter was also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":2829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/umns12_359_1_480.jpg?fit=480%2C319&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-Jx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2833,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}