The Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord
My dear friends in Christ,
This is an urgent call to pray for our nation. As I speak, a mob of rioters, some of them armed, have broken through the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, in an attempt to disrupt the constitutionally mandated process to certify the election of President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
There can be no justification, no defense, for this action. It is especially shameful and regrettable that it was incited, or at least encouraged, by remarks made by the President of the United States and some of his family this morning in Washington.
Please pray that the country may go in a different direction. Pray now for the safety of our members of Congress and our senators, for the Capitol Police themselves, and pray especially for these rioters, that God will turn their hearts, that they may abandon this folly and pursue, instead, the way of peace.
Thank you and God bless you.
Faithfully your bishop,
(The Right Reverend) Dorsey W.M. McConnell, D.D.
VIII Bishop of Pittsburgh