The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd

On July 27, 2008, a gunman entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, killed two congregants, wounded six others, and traumatized the congregation, including its 25 children who were in the midst of performing "Annie." At this link, find the text and video of the vigil service conducted on July 29, 2008 on the Greenfield, MA Common by All Souls Church, Unitarian Universalist, to witness to the horror and tragedy of this event. We pray for peace and healing for our brothers and sisters in Tennessee.

Vigil on Greenfield, Massachusetts Common (video)

We thank you for joining us this evening, to remember and honor those killed, wounded and traumatized on July 27, 2008 in Knoxville. During the service, we invite you, at anytime to write words of sympathy or support on these large cards. We will send them to our Unitarian Universalist sisters and brothers in Knoxville and Farragut, Tennessee to let them know that they are not alone and that we are praying for their healing.

We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. (Christine)

We affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

We believe that our churches are places where all people are accepted, and where we keep on learning together.

We believe that each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life.

We affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process.

We believe that all people should have a vote about the things which concern them.

We affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

I know Knoxville. My parents were married at Broadway Baptist Church in Knoxville. My grandfather was a policeman in the Knoxville police department for most of his life. My father’s uncle ran the Hamilton National Bank in Knoxville for all his life. My mother’s father and she herself ran several White Store grocery stores in Knoxville. My father was the first child in his family to go to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and I went there too for a short while. The church I attended in Knoxville, when I was a child, was the Second Presbyterian Church on Kingston Pike, next door to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. I know Knoxville.

I know its people. Its people are kind and gracious people who extend to all, and especially strangers, a gracious, friendly, southern hospitality that welcomes you into the fold. These are good people.

I also know Powell, Tennessee. It is the place where my grandfather, uncle, and aunt lived for at least 20 years. It lays half way between Knoxville and Oak Grove, where my mother was born on a farm. It is a land of rolling hills, lakes and fields. It is a land of good people, many of whom dedicate their lives to practicing Jesus’ teachings of loving oneself as one’s neighbor. It is a place, they say, that Jim Adkisson dwelled before choosing to enter Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday morning, July 27th, 2008, intending to kill as many liberals and gays as he could, before dying himself in the heat of battle.

Friends, this is what hate looks like. This is what evil looks like. Let us plainly name it as such. Evil is when one’s life events and others’ hate shape one’s beliefs so much that the easy answer is to blame an entire people for the sorrows of your own life. Evil is when we label people as “the other.”

As Unitarian Universalists, we are the religious liberals that he and others like him hate.

But, we are a people who, for hundreds of years, have fought for individual freedom and democratic representation. We as Unitarians and Universalists help found this country, right here in Massachusetts. We are a people who promote fair and equitable treatment of everyone, regardless of their race, color, sex, ability, affectional or sexual orientation, age, national orientation, or religious beliefs. We have fought and died for several hundred years for the civil rights of people of color, women, people with disabilities, people with different gender preferences, and, children. We believe in supporting each person’s search for health and wholeness, truth and justice. We do not tell people what to believe, but we do ask that you and I hold each person sacred while respecting each person’s search for truth.

As Unitarian Universalists, we worship that which calls us to bring health and wholeness to our lives and to others. It is a senseless tragedy when the evil that is hate creates so much prejudice that people come to believe that secular and religious liberals who work in shelters, serve community meals, and promote fair treatment and dignity for all people . . . are the enemy. We are not the enemy. We work to change patterns of injustice. And, we weep to know that Jim Adkisson’s soul was so corrupted by others spewing hate and his life’s experiences that he believed to his core that our sisters and brothers at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church were his enemy. Plainly said, they were not. We are not.

We weep for the tragedy of hate that brought death to brother Greg McKendry, age 60, and Linda Kraeger, age 61, who did nothing more than arise on Sunday morning, and go to church to seek spiritual nourishment and to extend a welcome hand to strangers who came to the door. We weep that the hand of hospitality they offered received such violent hate in return. We weep for our brothers and sisters, injured, wounded, and still recovering:

We hold in our hearts, the Barnhart family, of whom three were wounded: Joe Barnhart, age 76; Jack Barnhart, age 69: Betty Barnhart, age 71; and for Linda Chavez, age 41; John Worth, Jr, age 68; Allison Lee, age 42; and Tammy Sommers, age 38. We pray for their recovery, physically and spiritually.

We pray for all of our brothers and sisters who sat on Sunday in the Knoxville UU sanctuary, wanting nothing more than to enjoy the gift of childrens’ song, laughter, anxiety and bravado, as they performed for their loving parents, relatives, friends and grandparents. Most of all we pray for the children, who practiced hard to deliver their joyful performances, looking for pride from their family and friends; but for whom, now, their memories will be forever shattered by horror, betrayal and blood caused by a stranger who came to their door, for the sole purpose of killing them.

Where will their trust in humanity come from, as they go through life? We pray that they will come to understand that there are good people in this world, many people in Tennessee, who deserve their trust, and to whom they can go to for help and reassurance in troubled times. We pray that they and their families will not also be mortally wounded by betrayal and fear, but will, with courage, stand again for equal rights for all people, no matter the cost.

We pray for the rebuilding of our Unitarian Universalist sister congregations in Knoxville and Farragut.

We pray that they will continue to hold close to their hearts the words of Francis David, the Unitarian martyr who died in prison in 1579 for believing these words that he scratched on the walls of his prison cell, “We need not think alike, to love alike.”

I offer this prayer, knowing that tragedy such as this will open old wounds never healed as we remember tragedies through which we have each lived. During this prayer, you will have a moment to offer the name of someone you wish remembered for wounds suffered at the hands of injustice.

Spirit of Community, in which we share and find strength and common purpose, we turn our minds and hearts toward one another seeking to bring into our circle of concern all who need our love and support; those who are ill, those who are in pain, either in body or in spirit, those who are lonely, those who have been wronged.

We remember Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, and pray for their families. We remember, too, Joe Barnhart, Jack Barnhart, Betty Barnhart, Linda Chavez, John Worth, Jr, Allison Lee, Tammy Sommers; and all of their families. We remember the children, and pray for the healing of their trust in humanity. We remember the Unitarian Universalist congregations of Knoxville and Farragut, Tennessee, and hold them in our hearts, knowing their recovery toward health will be slow and painful. We pray for Jim David Adkisson, knowing that his soul was born in innocence and corrupted by a life of sorrow and hate.

We are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity, one with the universe. We are grateful for the miracle of consciousness that we share, the consciousness that gives us the power to remember, to love, and to care.

These words from the late, Rev. Marjorie Bowens Wheatley. I ask that you respond with the words, “It will not matter.”

If, recognizing the interdependence of all life, we strive to build community, the strength we gather will be our salvation. If you are black and I am white,

If we join spirits as brothers and sisters, the pain of our aloneness will be lessened, and that does matter.

Love is not concerned with whom you pray or where you slept the night you ran away from home. Love is concerned that the beating of your heart should kill no one.

Minister: I now invite you to return to depart this gathering and to leave, singing “Go Now in Peace.” All Souls members and known friends are invited to return with us to the church for a private gathering.