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Apr 16, 2013 | Mary Frances Schjonberg

ENS: Boston Marathon Bomb Rocks Local Episcopalians

[Episcopal News Service] The seven runners from Trinity Church Copley Square who were competing in the Boston Marathon to raise money for the church’s anti-violence initiative escaped injury in the two explosions that ripped through the race’s finish line that is within 300 yards of the church’s front porch.

 

The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts announced that it will hold a prayer service with Holy Eucharist at 12:15 p.m. April 16 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, with Bishop Suffragan Gayle Harris presiding, “assuming downtown conditions and transit have regularized.”

 

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is in Okinawa, Japan for the Second Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference, called for prayer following the explosions, and offered the following prayer:


Gracious God, you walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We pray that the suffering and terrorized be surrounded by the incarnate presence of the crucified and risen one. May every human being be reminded of the precious gift of life you entered to share with us.  May our hearts be pierced with compassion for those who suffer, and for those who have inflicted this violence, for your love is the only healing balm we know. May the dead be received into your enfolding arms, and may your friends show the grieving they are not alone as they walk this vale of tears.  All this we pray in the name of the one who walked the road to Calvary. Amen.

 

The two bombs killed three people and injured more than 150 others in a terrifying scene of broken glass, smoke and severed limbs, authorities said, according to an Associated Press report.

 

The blasts took place almost simultaneously about four hours after the start of the race, and about 100 yards apart, AP said, tearing limbs off numerous people, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending smoke rising over the street.

 

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