Below you can find a message from the Very Rev. Pamela. These are sent out most Fridays in our newsletter. Published June 26, 2026.
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Message from the Very Rev. Pamela from June 26, 2026:
Dear Ones,
This Sunday we will once again be wearing orange stoles in church. Orange has been a color that symbolizes gun violence awareness for more than 10 years now, and sadly the need to “wear orange” has not diminished in that time.
The shooting we are lamenting now happened on Monday at the public library in Chico, right here in our Diocese. We are united to them in bonds of friendship; many of us have spent time in Chico for school or recreation or church gatherings. The tragic loss of life there, in a place that is every bit as much a sanctuary as many churches, hits too close to home.
I know many of you are already praying for the people of Chico, and for an end to gun violence everywhere. The Bishop sent a pastoral letter this week and I’ve been in touch with the Very Rev. Tammy Smith-Firestone, rector at St. John’s and dean of the Alta deanery.
A few years ago a colleague gave me the icon pictured here, which is based on an icon commissioned in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. It is called “Our Lady of Ferguson.” Both Madonna and Child are shown with dark skin, and their hands are raised in prayer, a posture that also reminds us of the “hands up, don’t shoot” mantra that followed that death. I turn to it at times like these, and hope it will bring both comfort and courage, so that we not only lament and pray but also work to change a culture that glorifies violence, instead of following the way of love, fully modeled for us in the life and ministry of Jesus.
As Bishop Deon Johnson of Missouri writes, “We pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to inflame and enkindle our lives, our churches, our communities, our cities, and our nation with a passion for lasting peace; through Jesus Christ the Author of Peace. Amen.”
Blessings,Pamela+
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