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Home > News > PRESIDENT'S RESPONSE TO VIRGINIA SHOOTINGS |
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| PRESIDENT'S RESPONSE TO VIRGINIA SHOOTINGS |
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Dear members of the Concordia community:
Our heartfelt prayers and sympathies go out to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute community as it struggles for understanding and hope following the terrible events of April 16. Knowing how much I love fellow members of the Concordia community, I can scarcely imagine the grief that must be enveloping Virginia Tech at this time.
The Concordia community is a higher educational community learning and serving in the reality of the “preeminent Christ” (Colossians 1:18). Thus, while we grieve with and for the Virginia Tech community, we “do not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). In fact, as we read of campuses throughout the country gearing up to provide special opportunities to process this tragedy, it brings to mind the wealth of resources that are part of everyday life at Concordia:
- Daily chapel services, including student-led evening worship opportunities, that have included the Virginia Tech community in word and prayer.
- Trained spiritual caregivers – Chaplain, ordained ministers (several of our faculty, including myself), commissioned ministers (again, several of our faculty and staff, including Executive Vice President Winterstein), trained student Spiritual Life Representatives – who are readily available for appointments and informal conversation and prayer.
- Connection to an international church body that provides spiritual aid (see http://www.cph.org/resources/vt.asp and http://www.lhm.org/) that connects everyday life with the unchanging truth of God’s Word.
Additional resources available to protect and comfort our community include:
- Student services team that includes the above-mentioned Chaplain, Executive Director of Student Services, Associate Director of Residential Housing, Resident Counselor, and Director of Counseling Services.
- Campus Security (734.358.1340).
- Resident Advisors for each residence hall who are students trained in CPR, peer counseling and emergency response.
Concordia’s campus has a proven history of being safe and secure. The Virginia Tech tragedy makes us even more aware of the need for vigilance and planning, even as we know ultimately that “God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46).
Please feel free to contact me (734.995.7330, ahlert@cuaa.edu) with any questions or concerns. God’s richest blessings be with and sustain the Virginia Tech community and all educational communities that gather together in learning, serving, and striving to better our world.
The Rev. Thomas R. Ahlersmeyer, Ph.D.
President
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