CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Diane Schmidt Dardón, Lutheran
campus pastor, Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, has
been ministering with families and friends of students wounded
from a shooting on the NIU campus Feb. 14 that left five
students dead plus the gunman.
Dardón, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), told the ELCA News Service that she spent the
evening and early morning at Kishwaukee Community Hospital,
DeKalb, where she stood with families as they identified the
bodies of students killed.
The Lutheran Campus Ministry Center is "kitty-corner to
the building where the shooting took place," said Dardón. The
center will be open around the clock "for those who are weary
and restless," she said.
Outside of the center are six large crosses, draped in
red and purple with the message, "We walk in hope, we pray for
healing." As students and others stop to view the crosses,
they are invited to write a message "to express their grief,"
Dardón said. Those who stop by the crosses are also invited to
visit the Lutheran Campus Ministry Center everyday at 6:30 p.m.
for "remembrance prayers," she said. "The crosses have become
a huge witness to this community."
The Lutheran Campus Ministry Center held prayer vigils Feb.
14 at 10 p.m. and midnight. Soon after the shooting Dardón said
she called the center to organize a candlelight vigil, and
"students there immediately took action. From that one phone
call two prayer vigils were organized. Our church is so
amazingly blessed by our young leaders," she said.
The Rev. Gary M. Wollersheim, bishop, ELCA Northern Illinois
Synod, Rockford, attended a candlelight vigil.
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Information about the ELCA Northern Illinois Synod is at
http://www.nisynod.org/lcm on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org