Vigil

Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley will have a candlelight vigil (6:30 pm, Tuesday, July 29) for the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. A brief announcement was published in both the print and online version of the Bryan - College Station Eagle People of all faiths are welcome to participate.

Someone asked in the comments section under the announcement, "Where any of the dead from College Station?"

I did not wish to respond in comments section because I do not want to encourage the Eagle. I really hope they drop that feature because it has been nothing but a whole lot of ugly recklessly driving a truckload of stupid.

The question above is the most benign comment that I've read in the Eagle comments or any other news site's comments regarding the shooting in Knoxville.

In answer to the commenter's question, as far as I know, none of the dead or wounded have ties to College Station. According to the Dallas Morning News, some of the wounded and one of the dead, Linda Kraeger, had ties to north Texas and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Denton. Our minister was a member of that church. I don't if Rev. Eric knew these people.

Whether or not the dead were from College Station (or the city of Bryan, Brazos, Robertson, Grimes, Madison, Washington, Waller counties or the state of Texas) is not relevant. UU churches all over the world are holding vigils because a member of our denominational family has been hurt. Churches and people of other faiths have held vigils or prayed because members of the human family have been hurt and killed in a sanctuary. A sanctuary! A place of safety.

We grieve with and pray for TVUUC. We will try to deal with our own emotions. We will support each other.