Interfaith Clergy Holds Vigil Against Gun Violence

(Updated 5/26/2022) Following yet another tragic school shooting that took the lives of 19 children and two adults in Texas, Scarsdale’s interfaith clergy joined forces to organize a vigil against gun violence on Wednesday evening May 23 at 7:30 pm.

An email from the clergy at Westchester Reform Temple said, “It is an outrage and a horror that we as a nation tolerate the brutal murder of children in school, again and again and again. Our hearts are broken for the victims' families in Uvalde, Texas and all the families who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

This gathering, comprised of clergy, concerned community members, and our elected officials, is our opportunity to say NO to the unrelenting plague of gun violence and mass shootings in America, and to hold responsible the US Congress, gun manufacturers and distributors, and a gun lobby which continues to work against the wishes of a majority of American citizens who want sensible legislation to help curb the bloodshed.

If you would like to take action, stand up to the gun lobby by texting ACT to 644-33. Call NY Senator Schumer 202-224-6542 and tell him to put the Background Check Expansion Act on the floor for a vote now! If you would like to make a donation, please consider Everytown for gun safety: https://www.everytown.org/donation-information/

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and never again train for combat” - Isaiah 2:4. “Reverend Kelly Rogers

Reverend Pete Jones from Hitchcock Church said, “Tomorrow Annie and I will send Jack to elementary school like we do every morning. I will drop him off at the door and say a prayer, and I will take a deep sigh of relief when I watch him walk back out of that school at the end of the day. When I was at Martha's chorus concert at the middle school last night, I checked to see where the exits were, and I scanned the crowd several times. That is the reality of having children today.

I know that all of you are as sick as I am about the incredible loss of life today in Texas. A few years ago, Nelba Marquez-Greene, who lost her daughter, Ana Grace, at Sandy Hook came and spoke to us at Hitchcock. Here we are again...with at least 18 elementary school kids killed at school in America, as well as two adults.

In the church, we often talk about repentance. Well, the word "repent" literally means to turn around and to go in a different direction. So, I ask for your prayers this night for the families of these young victims and for the survivors who will never be the same. In addition, I ask that you join me in a prayer of confession for the sin of gun violence in our nation. We have not done enough, and this happened on our watch. We must demand change.”

Participating in the Vigil were the following:

Dr. John T. King
Rabbi David Levy
Reverend Kelly Rogers
Arshad Kahn
Elder Deborah Milcarek
Reverend Katherin Pater
Reverend Pete Jones
Can Danielle Rodnizki
Rabbi Shira Milgrom
Representative Jamaal Bowman
NYS Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Mayor Jane Veron
Villate Trustee Randall Whitestone
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

Speaking at the vigil, NYS Assemblymember Amy Paulin said, "What happened yesterday at Robb Elementary School is beyond words.  As a parent, I am overwhelmed with grief for the families of those who were killed. As a citizen, I am outraged that once again, gun violence has cut short the lives of children.

My prayers are with the families of Uvalde, Texas who have lost a child, friend, parent or mentor. But it’s not enough to pray.
We have been here too many times before.  Just eleven days ago, we mourned those shot in a grocery store in Buffalo. Today we stand together facing another horrific tragedy. This is just devastating, and almost impossible to bear.

This is not the way the world should be.

Kids should not have to go to school thinking that they might be shot that day. Parents should not drop off their kids at school and have it be the last time they ever see them alive.

This is no way to live.

This country must have a comprehensive reevaluation of its out-of-control gun culture and policies.

On an average day in the U.S., more than 110 people are shot and killed by a gun. And there have been more mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2022 than days in the year.

Our federal government and our state legislature must pass bills to end our gun crisis. And I will not stop fighting until they do."

National leaders like Senator Chris Murphy, who represented Newtown CT at the time of the school shooting at Sandy Hook pleaded with his fellow lawmakers to pass meaningful gun control legislation. On Tuesday May 24, 2022 he said, "What are we doing? … Sandy Hook will never, ever be the same. This community in Texas will never, ever be the same. Why? Why are we here? If not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through. What Uvalde is going through."

Murphy described the U.S. government's failure to act after such instances of gun violence "a quiet message of endorsement."

The vigil was held on Wednesday May 23 at 7:30 pm at Scarsdale Congregational Church at 1 Heathcote Road in Scarsdale.