Tragedy in Knoxville

Our church has included the following in our latest e-mail newsletter and it includes links that may prove helpful to some of you.

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard about the tragedy at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. The incident occurred in front of many children. This may be discussed in many of your homes, and your children may well hear about it and be concerned. The Unitarian Universalist Church in Atlanta has already developed a response website, to provide information to help people deal with the situation:

http://www.uuca.org/KnoxvilleShooting.asp

This site has a link to a different page, developed specifically to talk about the incident on 9-11 with children, but which includes some wonderful information for helping parents talk to children about any tragedies. It is part of a website devoted to helping children develop moral intelligence.

http://www.simplemommysecrets.com/Pages/ArtBMI14.htm

In addition, for those of you with younger children, there is a information that is part of the Mr. Roger's website

http://pbskids.org/rogers/parentsteachers/ and http://pbskids.org/rogers/parentsteacers/special/scarynews-thoughts.html

I know you join me in holding all of those affected by this tragedy in our hearts and in our prayers.

We had a very moving service on Sunday in Petaluma. I find myself at a loss for words, but the emotions are there. Thanks, Varielle, for posting.

On the WELL, another online community I participate in, we have a convention of showing sympathy and support silently, by entering a number of blank spaces. I tried that here, but it didn't show up as a space. So, I am going to suggest that we can adopt this same convention, knowing that it will look different--if you want to register sympathy or support, just enter a blank entry. I'm going to do that next.