Apr 24: Vigil for VA Tech - photos, flowers, and prayers

Community Vigil for the Virginia Tech Tragedy
April 24, 2007
Pacific School of Religion, chapel steps

Sponsored by the PANA Institute and the PSR Office of Community Life

Prayer

Dear Holy One,

We, as ones who have received Your grace and ones who are enabled to call upon you, are before You.
We thank You. Thank You for Your grace to know You and be known by You. Thank you for our new identify as Your children and to be a part of Your reality of community.
We thank You for allowing the community of PANA, with the office of Community of Life at PSR, to have a space for this gathering.
As brothers and sisters, we are here to dedicate our hearts and minds in remembrance of those souls affected by the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.
Here, we call You to Your presence. Here, we call You for Your guidance and Your comfort, because we are sad, and sorrow for those who are not here any longer and for those who suffered through the loss.
Let our spirits be touched by Yours, for only You can read and know our inner state of hearts and minds.
And only You can create our new space to initiate our comfort and peace and to guide and sustain that condition for our blessings and for Your glory.
Therefore, open Your ears to hear our inner voices and open Your eyes to see our devotions.
We pray that through this time of gathering, You grant us Your strength and comfort so that we can have our peace.
Thank you and pray in the name of Your Son Jesus. Amen

-- prayer led by Kyung-Min Daniel Lee

About the Centerpiece

The centerpiece of today’s vigil was designed by PSR student Yi Rang Lim.
The center collage features those who lost their lives in the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Surrounding their images are those of persons who mourn and grieve over the tragedy—while they may have no direct connection to those who perished, they feel connected to them and have been affected by their lives and by their deaths.

Surrounding the images are stones representing our own organic connectedness to the earth.

In many Asian cultures, water symbolizes the cleansing of pain and grief. Symbolically, the tragedy at Virginia Tech rests under the cleansing power of clear water.

Also, in many Asian cultures, white chrysanthemums symbolize grief and mourning—by placing the flowers into the pond, we share in another’s pain.

In addition, there are 33 candles, one for each of those who died in the tragedy.

Today, we encircle these images and symbols as a way of standing in solidarity with those who are in pain, those who mourn, and those who grieve at Virginia Tech and around the globe—we do so knowing that whatever affects one, affects us all.

Related post:

PANA Executive Director Fumitaka Matsuoka's letter about the tragedy.

Community Vigil for VA Tech

Community Vigil
In remembrance of all those affected by the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech
(Please bring a flower)

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
1:00-1:30pm

Steps of the Chapel at the Pacific School of Religion
1798 Scenic Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709

Sponsored by the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute) and the Office of Community Life at the Pacific School of Religion.

For more information, contact Rev. Deborah Lee at
(510)849-8260 or dlee@psr.edu.

Related posts:

• PANA Executive Director Fumitaka Matsuoka's letter about the tragedy.
• Photos and text of prayer and sacred-art offerings at the event.

PANA Letter on VA Tech Tragedy

April 18, 2007

We, the members of the Institute for Leadership Development & the Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute) of Pacific School of Religion, are deeply struck by the recent tragedy that took place at Virginia Tech University. We extend our heartfelt condolences to all the people of the university. Our prayers are particularly for the victims, their families, and friends. The horrifying tragedy affects us all like an abrupt rupture of a thread in the web of humanity that sets the whole web trembling.

We at the PANA Institute are also deeply concerned about the fear and anxiety that are fast surfacing in Asian and Oceanic American communities about a possible backlash and retaliation against these communities and their members because of the suspected gunman’s racial and ethnic identity widely reported in the media. Such reporting can subject Asian and Oceanic American communities to unfair portrayals in the current tolerant climate for racial slurs and jokes against people of color.

We at PANA stand with those who are afraid of possible negative repercussions from the tragic incident. We stand with those who may be subjected to all kinds of evil against them because of the racial twist in the reading of the tragedy. We stand with those who hunger and thirst for racial justice. You are not alone. Blessings are particularly yours.

We at PANA appeal to news media of all forms to refrain from referencing and emphasizing the race and ethnicity of the suspected perpetrator of the tragedy. Such an accent does not serve any useful purpose. It only fuels the current climate in this society that demeans people, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

Too many tragic incidents like Virginia Tech have happened in recent years. We at PANA urge faith communities of America to work toward ending violence as a means to settle grievances, may they be personal, communal, or international. It is easy to blame the perpetrators of violence for each of the series of incidents. These individuals and the victims of their violent acts may well be the “canary in the coalmine shaft” of the toxic societal environment in which we all live.

---Fumitaka Matsuoka,
Executive Director, The Institute for Leadership Development & the Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion, Pacific School of Religion

Related posts:
Response by Professor Elaine Kim
Community Vigil at Pacific School of Religion