About this ministry of prayer

One of the most important and solemn responsibilities we have as Christians is to pray for the dead. No matter how someone dies or under what kind of circumstances, there is always a loss that we honor in our prayers. Here in the United States, a firearm is used in the deaths of hundreds of people every month. In this ministry, we honor and pray by name for all who have died this month in gun violence.

This list of names is compiled from the Gun Violence Archive. This archive seeks to document all the occurrences of gun violence around the country. In most cases, there occurrences are tracked through local news reports. Where the names have been disclosed, they have been included in our list. Some locations and newspapers have policies around privacy. There are also policies around non-disclosure in cases of active investigations, and in some cases, the names of minors are not disclosed. These individuals are prayed for in our service when we pray for all other victims of gun violence. In all, this is an expansive list but not a complete list.

For us, this ministry is not political. We are making no statements about the moral status or condition of anyone who has died. This list we pray through during this service includes people who were died during the commission of a crime. It includes victims of domestic violence. There are people who killed others during a home invasion, and it includes people who were killed by a person defending their home. It includes people, even children, who were killed accidentally. This list includes people killed by police officers during the course of their duty, and it include officers who were themselves killed during the course of their duty. This list includes people who took another’s life in anger, and it includes people who took their own lives.

The purpose of this ministry is to remember that every one of these names that we pray is a person, a beloved child of God. Every one of these people is mourned, and we mourn with them. This reminds us that all of our lives are lived in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection. Even in the midst of grief, we remember that nothing, not even death itself, can overcome the love of God.