Invocation: Memorial Service for Sean Collier

We gather today and invoke the presence of God however understood;
For some the relationship is between good friends; for others, it is shouting into darkness.
We are a community committed to understanding.
We are also a people mourning a life lost to senseless violence and calculated brutality.

And we reach out because we do not understand why Sean Collier was taken away from his family,
His brothers and sisters in law enforcement;
His friends on this campus.
We reach out and acknowledge that we have no answers to our questions and we ask why?

We cultivate the strength to go on,
Drawing solace from one another and the traditions that offer meaning in our lives.
And we shout into the darkness

Even if no one hears
We say thank you for Sean
For his gifts, his compassion, his energy,
His sense of right and wrong.
We hold him in memory and we pray that we might see him again; and in the meantime
we live emboldened by the virtues he exemplified.

Amen!

Please be seated.