LWF offers condolences after Texas school shooting 

Church encouraged to "continue to advocate prophetically against gun violence” 

(LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has expressed condolences and shared prayers with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the people of Texas, following the shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 

My heart goes out to the parents, siblings and relatives of those killed in the shooting, wrote LWF General Secretary Rev. Anne Burghardt on 25 May in a letter to ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. “I can only imagine the pain and sorrow that they are going through, and I know that this is a pain that you as a church also feel.” 

The 24 May attack was the deadliest school shooting in the United States of America in a decade, leaving at least nineteen young children and two adults dead. It came just ten days after a racially motivated shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, left ten people dead and another three injured.  

“May our God of grace and love comfort you all," wrote Burghardt, adding that she was encouraged by the advocacy and prophetic voice of the ELCA on the issue of ending gun violence.  

“I urge you to continue with this witness, as you find ways to promote the gospel of peace and justice in your church and among the people of your country,” she said.

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