"Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I am writing to ask that you lift in prayer the campus community of Virginia Tech. At this hour in the early afternoon, the news is reporting that a gunman has killed twenty-nine students and wounded nearly twenty others today. While we still don’t know all of the details of this story, we can only imagine the fear and grief this tragedy has generated on campus and in the hearts of students, family members awaiting word of their loved ones, faculty members, the administration, and the neighboring community.

When we participate in a child’s baptism, we promise as a community of faith to uphold that child and nurture him or her in the faith. Today I ask that you pray especially for the Presbyterians and others who will be upholding and nurturing these students and their families. We especially want to be in prayer for the Presbyterian campus ministry program at Virginia Tech, as well as for the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, the Northside Presbyterian Church, and the Roanoke Valley Presbyterian Church in the city of Blacksburg, Virginia, as they minister in this crisis today and the ensuing days ahead.

In terrible events such as this, it is fear that separates us. But Paul’s words remind us that we are not alone:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).