UPDATED MAY 22, 2023
A United Methodist Insight Special
United Methodists in Allen, Texas, are leading an interfaith response to the May 6 mass shooting at a local outlet mall that ended with nine deaths including three children and the shooter and seven people injured.
Suncreek United Methodist Church offered a Service of Prayer and Call to Action on Sunday evening, May 7, organized by the Executive Director of Programs Kimmi Cramer. The goal of the service was to provide a space for the traumatized Allen community to come together for spiritual comfort in the shooting’s aftermath. It was also a call to move beyond "thoughts and prayers," said its senior pastor, the Rev. Dr. Barry Hughes.
A church of 1,600 members, Suncreek UMC is located about five miles southwest from Allen Premium Outlets where the shooting occurred. Allen is a city of 107,000 residents 25 miles north of Dallas with three United Methodist churches, Suncreek, First-Allen and Creekwood.
The Allen shooting was the 199th gun violence episode recorded in the United States since the beginning of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The May 6 shooting was the second deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year, reported the New York Times. By May 16, the Gun Violence Archive listed 225 mass shootings in the United States, defined as an incident in which four or more people are killed.
The Rev. Dr. Barry Hughes, Suncreek's senior pastor, announced at the beginning of the service that the church had created a QR code to take visitors directly to a page of the church's website set up for the shooting response, "Love Takes Action." The page announces a May 22 event to which Allen residents are invited to begin discussions about responses to gun violence and mass shootings in their area and across Texas.
The web page says: "We feel that the time is now to mobilize people of goodwill to make clear to our elected leaders that we do not accept the violence of mass shootings as a normal part of our life." The page lists four main goals:
- Advocating for Gun Law Reform
- Connecting People to Mental Health Resources
- Safety & Crisis Response
- Teaching Tolerance & Acceptance
Kimmi Cramer, Suncreek's executive director of program and youth ministries whose background is in education, told United Methodist Insight in a telephone interview that the effort's overall goal is to give people "tangible ways to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others."
"We have a lot more in common than we have differences," Ms. Cramer said. "We're not trying to make it political; it's the human impact that concerns us."
Regarding the May 22 meeting's four intentions, Ms. Cramer said the group will look at:
- Red flag laws, background checks, waiting periods and raising the minimum age for gun ownership, along with assessing current gun legislation being considered now by the Texas Legislature.
- How to be safer in public situations and how to respond in crises, including enhanced first aid techniques in the event of injuries.
- Recognizing signs of mental distress, how to talk with children and the community about mental health, and how to get mental health services when needed.
- Building community through regular interpersonal encounters.
Ms. Cramer said that she learned at the May 7 worship service that the Rev. Mary Beth Hardesty-Crouch, lead pastor at First UMC-Allen, began interfaith meals for community sharing just before the May 6 shooting. Ironically, Suncreek UMC also started a gathering, Love Your Neighbor, last fall for the same purpose, so now the two churches are aware of one another's efforts, Ms. Cramer said.
The Rev. David Lessener, pastor of Creekwood UMC in Allen, has also joined the effort, she added.
In a video of the May 7 service, Rev. Hughes, whose doctorate is in interfaith relationships, emphasized that "Love in Action" proposes a mission grounded in Christian faith and United Methodism's three "general rules" of following Jesus: "do no harm, do good and stay in love with God."
"We are called to action," Dr. Hughes said. "We're not only called to do no harm; we're called to do good. And doing good means we respond to the harm that is done to others."
Suncreek's senior pastor continued: "Our first step when we're called to action is to hold on to our faith even when it is shaken, so that we have some ground to stand upon to act and to serve God."
Dr. Hughes encouraged those at the May 7 service to send an email that night to their elected officials, "and do it tomorrow, and do it the next day. Let's make our voice be heard." He added that a sense of helplessness in the wake of mass shootings was "unacceptable."
"We are not supposed to accept the 'truth' – what some try to pass as 'truth' – that nothing can be done, that nothing can change, that we have to accept this is going to be a normal part of our life," the senior pastor said. "There is nothing normal about it, and there's nothing about it that I want to be a part of my life, part of our children's lives or our grandchildren's."
"We need to be the voice of Jesus in this world," he said. "We cannot stand by as countless lives are lost to this insanity. This isn't a Democratic problem or a Republican problem; it's a human family problem. We need to say as Christians we will not be silent anymore."
The congregation broke into applause at his words.
The service began with music by the church's youth choir, Cantate, who sang an anthem, "I Believe," by noted United Methodist composer Mark Miller. The lyrics are from a message written on the wall of a basement in Cologne, Germany, where Jews hid from Nazi persecution during World War II. Ferguson read the composer's words: "I composed this music as a testament to power of love over institutionalized hate."
Bishop Reuben Saenz, episcopal leader of the 420-church North Texas Annual Conference where Allen is located, gave the closing prayer May 7. The bishop told the congregation that the service was the third prayer vigil about mass shootings he had attended in the past two months. Bishop Saenz supervises both the Dallas-based North Texas Conference and the Fort Worth-based Central Texas Conference.
"We do not have to be paralyzed; there are things we can do," said the bishop. "God deplores the violence in our homes and communities. Moments like this break God's heart."
Veteran religion communicator Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel for marginalized and under-served voices in The United Methodist Church.