American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware

ABHMS Statement

 

We mourn the loss of more than 100,000 lives to COVID-19. We lament the pain felt by the families and friends of these victims, by their co-workers and fellow church-goers, by everyone touched by their friendship, by their companionship, by their love. For many of the family and friends left behind, the loss of these pandemic victims leaves holes in their lives that will never be filled.

 

In observance of this day, American Baptist Home Mission Societies calls you to stop right now--at noon on the East Coast, three hours from now on the West Coast or anytime in between--to reflect with hundreds of thousands of others on this massive loss to the social fabric of the United States and Puerto Rico.

 

Today, as Christians, we are called to feel the weight of collective grief. To reflect and remember. To recognize that because we are children of God, the loss of one of us, ultimately, touches each
of us.

 

As Walter Rauschenbusch wrote, "By what code of law and what standard shall we be judged ...? Here is the answer of Jesus: Not by creed and church questions, but by our human relations; by the reality of our social feeling; by our practical solidarity with our fellow human beings."*

 

More than ever, we need to stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings.

 

Part of that solidarity is remembering, collectively, those we have lost. To mark the pandemic's toll on American Baptist Churches USA, ABHMS is creating a "memorial wall" at abhms.org to list names of American Baptists lost to this deadly virus. Submit names here.

 

In Christian solidarity, we find hope. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

And in that hope, we pray this prayer from Rauschenbusch:
"Help us make the welfare of all the supreme law of the land, so that our commonwealth may be built strong and secure on the love of all its citizens." *

 

* Excerpted from "To Live in God: Daily Reflections with Walter Rauschenbusch,"
by Dennis L. Johnson (c 2020 Judson Press. Used by permission.)