There exists in America an invisible fellowship of those whose lives have been impacted by cruel and unjustifiable violence. Among the earliest gifts that Old South Church received was a banner created by a UCC church near the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. And yesterday, a box containing one thousand folded paper cranes was hand-delivered to the church. They are a gift sent by the Newtown Congregational Church, UCC. Each crane is a prayer for peace lifted up for us by a community that knows the value of peace.
Yet this gift carries with it a responsibility as well, because the cranes did not originate in Newtown. They were sent to Newtown from Chardon, Ohio, where there was a school shooting in 2012. And Chardon, Ohio received them from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where the cranes were created in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. These cranes migrate, you see. So for now, and for what we pray will be a long long long time, the cranes belong to Old South Church in Boston, the church of the Finish Line.
There exists in America an invisible fellowship of those whose lives have been touched by violence, and we have been blessed by the prayers of that fellowship. In these cranes, we have in our possession a tender and mighty blessing, ready to be sent as a blessing for another church, should there ever be need again.
Read Passing the Peace Cranes (The Newtown Bee, May 15, 2013)