Conference Minister's Corner - 9/16/2025

It’s been hard to know what to say or do or even feel since Charlie Kirk was assassinated. We all know this is a tragedy and shouldn’t happen and yes, gun violence is out of control in our country. We all know others; good people, young people, children, who have died at the hands of violence and have not received the attention they deserve. Preaching, praying and conversations (never mind facebook posts) have been incredibly difficult this past week. I have a friend I turn to when it’s hard to find words, who is always trying to find hope in the midst of all our world and our country is going through. And if not hope, at least a path forward. She shared this speech from Maria Shriver: it was spoken by President John F. Kennedy, Jr. after Martin Luther King’s assassination.

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country.”

Shriver added: “The words we need now are not words of division, but words of unity. We need to find a way to come together, to tone down the rhetoric, to stop the madness. We need to look for the light in this world. In fact, I know that within each of us, there is a light.”

May we all hold onto this: knowing there is a light and that light is within each of us. And may that light guide us forward to speak the right words, do the right things and and in the meantime, amid all the uncertainty, pain and hatred, somehow, manage to step out in love and justice for one another.

See you in Church,

Linda Hirst