How do we answer for Erie's gun violence? A Holy Week reflection by Bishop Rowe

This week, many Christians will commemorate the final days of Jesus of Nazareth and his brutal death on the cross. As we make the penitential journey through Holy Week, we will acknowledge our own complicity in the violence of the world, confessing, in the words of one prayer, that we have sinned "by what we have done, and by what we have left undone."

This year as I pray, I will be reflecting on all we have left undone in the fight against Erie's epidemic of youth gun violence.

In a powerful 2022 interview, leaders of Erie's Blue Coats anti-violence initiative painted a bleak portrait of the crisis that the pandemic created for our city's youth. Schools closed, parents were often forced to work long hours, older siblings got involved in gang activity while younger ones watched and learned, and social media, an effective accelerant on any spark, consumed the hours left empty by shuttered schools. It didn't take long until several years of progress against youth violence, hard won by Unified Erie and other community initiatives, evaporated. We know the result. In our city today, while overall rates of gun violence are decreasing, shootings involving children and teenagers are escalating at a horrifying rate.

More: Blue Coats: No one is exempt when it comes to Erie's youth gun violence

A few weeks ago, I joined with the other Episcopal bishops in Pennsylvania — all of us part of an Episcopal Church network called Bishops United Against Gun Violence — to endorse a platform of state legislation to reduce gun violence in our state. We have endorsed sensible limits that most Americans support. They include restricting purchasers to buying one handgun a month and prohibiting ghost guns, which are difficult to trace because people make them at home. We are also advocating for an end to the sale and possession of assault weapons and large capacity magazines, which have little use in civilian life other than to perpetrate mass shootings. And we support extreme risk protection order (ERPO) legislation, which would allow judges to remove guns temporarily from people who present a danger to themselves or others. Given that more than 60% of gun deaths in our commonwealth are suicides, I especially pray our legislature will have the mercy to pass ERPO.

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Insisting that our General Assembly pass these bills is one modest step we can take to stem the tide of gun violence in Erie. Another is to ask our friends and colleagues in Ohio, where gun laws are more lax, to advocate with their own lawmakers, since too many of the illegal guns on Erie's streets come across the state line. We can also continue to push for safe gun storage incentives, a federal background checks bill, and other commonsense initiatives that would make guns safer.

But while new legislative protections are essential, our community's gun violence problem runs deeper than laws alone can reach.

More: How many more students and teachers must die before lawmakers act to stop gun violence?

A few weeks ago, I visited the Equal Justice Initiative Museum and Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. The creation of author and activist Bryan Stevenson, these sites trace the historical connections between the twin evils of chattel slavery and the system of mass incarceration that takes so many young Black men from our communities. As I toured the museum and its companion memorial, which bears witness to the thousands of Black Americans who have been lynched and brutalized by racialized terror, I thought of the young Black people here at home who are consigned to lives of violence, incarceration, and early death. The godless conflagration of racism, gun violence and poverty is alive and well here in Erie, and we cannot allow it to stand.

More: How does Erie’s gun violence affect you? Time to speak up, together

Repairing the breach caused by systemic racism and disregard for human life will require perseverance, and we do not have any time to waste. In addition to building on the progress in this year’s state budget toward equitable funding for the Erie School District, we need to ensure that our city's children have quality early childhood programs, enriching after-school and summer programs, and college and vocational training opportunities and mentorships that pave the way to rewarding jobs. Their parents need support in escaping poverty and assistance in accessing the resources that will help them create safe and supportive homes. And our elected officials, clergy, and business owners need to seek the guidance of Unified Erie, the Blue Coats, Bishop Dwane Brock, and other community leaders and organizers who have much to teach us about the road ahead.

More: Three bishops, Black and white, unite to advance racial reckoning

Committing ourselves to this work is the right thing to do, but it is also prudent. As Daryl "Brother D" Craig, co-founder of the Blue Coats, says, our city is so small that "any one of us could be the next collateral damage… Nobody here is exempt." Or, as the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, "If one member suffers, all suffer together."

This Holy Week, as I walk the way of Jesus to the cross, I will pray that the people of Erie will repent of the things we have left undone. And come Easter morning, I will greet the Risen Christ with resolve to do better by his children in our city.

The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Holy Week calls us to confront racism, gun violence, and poverty in Erie