Charleston: A Tale of Reconcilliation

Charleston Church Reopens <source>

On the evening of June 17, 2015, a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor and state senator, Clementa C. Pinckney. A tenth person was shot and survived.

Police arrested a white suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, in Shelby, North Carolina the morning after the attack. <link>

The shooter wanted to start a race war, dividing the United States. However the way the community reacted has been the complete opposite:

Firstly the victims, the families of those killed, spoke to the killer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWzTU6TLyRs

Then a UK based teacher, asked a friend to document what has been happening in Charleston, with the result being a powerful witness to reconciliation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPLvBM7RKc

Watch the first full sermon from the church where the shooting took place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7T7QQ90Jtk

The community of Charleston singing, "We Shall Overcome" together:

<source>

Our Retreats (2014)

Image courtesy of Pins of Light

To retreat, in battle, is to step back, to re-evaluate, to regroup. In our daily lives, it is also important to do this and so we try to provide this opportunity for as many students as we can. 

This year the Walsingham House team, part of the Brentwood Catholic Youth Service, provided days of retreat for Y7 and Y8. We hope this becomes the start of a relationship between SHoM students and the BCYS, and indeed many of our Y10s go off to Lourdes this year as part of the youth pilgrimage.

This week saw the Y12 and Y9 retreats take place as part of our Enrichment Week.

For Y12 we welcomed back Steve Murray and Hamish MacQueen. Steve is an internationally renowned Christian mime artist who challenged us to think about our self-image and self-worth. He left us all with a powerful reminder that each and everyone one of us is beautiful and has great value as we have had the 'touch of the Master'. Here's a little clip of Steve from one of his DVDs and you can find out more on his website <here>.

Hamish is a friend of mine from when we travelled together to Taizé as part of the East Anglia Diocese Youth Pilgrimage. He lead a session that involved singing and dancing as well as reflection on our priorities in life. He shared his own story and asked us to think about what would happen if things went wrong, what would we be left with? Find out more on his website <here> and if you fancy buying his recent single from iTunes, it's available <here>.

Y9's retreat saw a "Day of Peace" organised by Davina Bolt of Brentwood Diocese Justice and Peace commission. We had workshops lead by CAFOD Brentwood (see photos <here>), Vererans for Peace UK (http://www.veteransforpeace.org.uk/), Pax Christi and the Columbans Missionaries. Each had it's own take on the theme looking at music as a means of peace (and writing some excellent raps!), the realities of war, peace in our everyday lives and relationships, reflection on scripture and prayer using the news.

Both days concluded with Mass, lead by the ever generous Fr Phillip Denton.

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our days. We are so grateful.

We hope all students got a lot from their days of retreat.