Mournful Prayers Rise for Virginia Tech

Area Religious Groups Combine to Offer Comfort

The rhythmic chant of Hindu prayers, the haunting melody of a lone guitar, words of condolence in Hebrew -- an interfaith service on Wednesday night to commemorate the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech massacre filled the soaring atrium of the Fairfax County Government Center with the sounds of mourning.

"We believe that we are one human family and we worship the same God," Eve Loudenback of the Great Falls Baha'i Spiritual Assembly said to the 600 people present, all wearing orange and maroon ribbons. "When one of us hurts in the family, it hurts all of us."

From across the region, religious leaders, spiritual crisis counselors and houses of worship representing the religious spectrum have opened their arms, and their doors, to comfort those affected by Monday's Virginia Tech massacre. At St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington, which has seen a number of its graduates go on to Virginia Tech, several hundred students and teachers gathered to pray the rosary and sing the Catholic hymn "Be Not Afraid" in remembrance of those who lost their lives on the campus.

The Rev. Rick Lord, pastor of Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna, said 40 people turned out for a prayer service Monday night despite the short notice.

"They may not have a direct connection, but they just feel diminished" by the shootings, Lord said. "They need to express that. There's nothing like a tragedy like this to bring out our common bonds."

A number of faith organizations have geared up to offer support to college students. The University of Maryland's Catholic Student Center chapel is offering a Mass on Sunday for the victims of the tragedy.

"I think students around the country and at the University of Maryland are profoundly affected by this," said the Rev. Bill Byrne, chaplain of the Catholic Student Center. "The incident brings up an awful lot of issues: safety, security, how to deal with people."

Crisis counselors from a number of faith-based organizations have also turned out in full force at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.

Three members of the Virginia Baptist Mission's Crisis Care Chaplains program are counseling members of the Virginia Tech community, as well as police officers, paramedics and other personnel who had to confront the horrific scenes of carnage. Additional chaplains may be deployed after classes resume, said the Rev. John Tadlock, a Richmond minister who is coordinating the effort.

But the organization is holding off sending too many resources.

"In some sense, the care-giving 'market' is flooded -- today," said Terry Raines, coordinator for Mobile Mission and disaster relief for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. "The challenge, however, comes when the media's cameras have left."

They are gearing up a program to offer spiritual counseling to students as they leave for summer break next month.

"We want to give people an opportunity to grieve and experience healing," Tadlock said.

The Rev. Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church, which meets in three locations -- two in the District and one in Arlington -- says ministers at the church plan to offer a prayer at tomorrow's services asking God to bring peace and comfort to those suffering. Like other faith leaders, he is braced for the inevitable questions of why a good God allows bad things to happen.

Batterson's planned response: "Yes, God is good, but He has also given humankind something called 'free will,' and we can use it for tremendous good, and we can use it for tremendous evil."