Dear PSR Community:
The prophetic naming at our commencement exercises on Sunday of the desolation in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones speaks to the desolation, grief, and anger we are once again forced to confront. The news about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, are filling our screens with horrific updates and our hearts with grief.
Uvalde is 85 miles outside of San Antonio, where I attended nearby Texas Lutheran University. Uvalde was a regular stop on my way back to Eagle Pass to visit my uncle and his family who were serving a Lutheran mission on the border.
Knowing that “this is what we are about” as a theological community committed to social justice, many of us will once again raise our voices in pulpits and podiums to address the tragedies that are tearing at the very fabric of our communities.
Each time we must find the words to speak prophetically and with compassion, while as a faith and learning community we also wrestle with questions of how we bring our scholarship and study to bear on the desperate needs of the world.
May we find ways to dare to mark the tragedy, be present to the outrage and the grief, and wrestle in words and actions with God’s question to Ezekiel about the possibility of a different way.
Peace,
Rev. David Vásquez-Levy, President of Pacific School of Religion