Justice Board

Approximately 80 people attended the Candlelight Vigil for Peace, held at Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral on Sunday, December 7, 2014, in response to the Grand Jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York declining to bring charges in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Some attendees wore bull's-eyes on their backs. The Rev. Sandye Wilson of St. Andrew & Holy Communion in South Orange told a reporter/photographer for The Star-Ledger, "We feel like we all are walking around with a target on our backs, especially young black men." (See The Star-Ledger coverage and photo gallery.)

Bishops United Against Gun Violence, an ad hoc group of almost 60 Episcopal bishops, today released a briefing paper that “seeks to shed light on new findings indicating that the vast majority of Americans today, including gun owners, support universal background checks prior to all gun sales.”

[Episcopal News Service – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma] The Rev. Joseph Harmon, rector of Christ Church, East Orange, New Jersey, in the Diocese of Newark describes an effort to get state and local law enforcement agencies to discuss safe-gun technology with their firearm vendors. Harmon says that, after the U.S. military and other federal law-enforcement agencies, state and local police form the largest single group of gun buys in the United States and, thus, could be a strong advocacy voice.

[Episcopal News Service – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma] Diocese of Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith discusses the growing epidemic of violence and how he and other Episcopal Church bishops have come together to form Bishops Against Gun Violence to begin to stem the tide.

From eye-catching public signs to a haunting display of empty shoes, congregations in the Diocese of Newark found creative ways to join over a thousand other houses of worship across the country in observing Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath, March 13-16, 2014.