A gunman opened fire in a dormitory and then a classroom building at Virginia Tech early in the morning of April 16, killing 32 people.

On April 17, law enforcement authorities identified the killer as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a South Korean who was a resident alien in the United States and in his senior year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University as an English major. Cho later killed himself. Reports still vary about whether Cho was the only person who fired either of the two guns found in the aftermath of the killings.

President and Mrs. Bush attended convocation the afternoon of April 17 on the university campus. Video and audio of the service is available here. Bush, who was raised as an Episcopalian, told attendees that people were praying for them.

"Across the town of Blacksburg and in towns all across America, houses of worship from every faith have opened their doors and have lifted you up in prayer," he said. "People who have never met you are praying for you; they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God. As the Scriptures tell us, ‘Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'"

Meanwhile, Episcopalians began praying in informal and formal ways shortly after news of the killings was reported.

At Christ Church in Blacksburg, the closest Episcopal church to the Virginia Tech campus, the Christ Church staff held a prayer vigil shortly after the shootings and decided to keep the church open for prayer -- 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. -- for the rest of the week. A sign on door of the sanctuary says "Please enter to pray."

Interim rector the Rev. Elizabeth Morgan was able to meet with members of the Christ Church-sponsored Canterbury Fellowship on the Tech campus later in the day on April 16. She reported on the parish's website that Canterbury members will hold a Memorial Eucharist and Service for Healing and Hope to take place in the Canterbury Chapel on April 18 at 5:30 p.m., the time of the regular weekly service at Canterbury House. The usual dinner will follow, she wrote.

The Rev. Scott Russell, Christ Church's associate rector and campus chaplain, is in Germany and is due back at mid-week, Morgan said.

Down the road in Radford, Virginia, the Rev. Kris Kramer, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, reported participating in a prayer service in Heth Ballroom on the campus of Radford University (RU) on April 16 that was attended by about 100 members of the university community.

"There was open and honest sharing of the so many different prayer requests with one RU student reminding us to remember the shooter and the shooter's family in our prayers. We did," he wrote in an e-mail to Episcopal News Service. "There were references to our feelings about 9/11 and several people noting how precious life truly is. It is. It seems the road ahead will be long and tedious....for all of us."

He reported that there would be another service at Radford University on April 17 as well as one that evening at Christ Episcopal Church in nearby Pearisburg.

Also on April 16, the Rev. Rick Lord, rector of Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna, Virginia, organized an evening service of intercessory prayer. About 40 people attended the service in the church's St. Mary's Chapel.

"It was good to see folks gather together last night, strangers and friends who simply needed to bring their hearts to a sacred space and affirm that the power of love is stronger than death," Lord wrote on his blog.

Television coverage of the vigil is available here.

Lord reported that at least one of the 33 people who died in the two shootings was from the Vienna area and was known to his wife who is an art teacher in the Fairfax County public school system.

Farther afield, the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas planned a prayer vigil on the evening of April 17 at Canterbury House at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Kansas Bishop Dean E. Wolfe, student peer ministers, and campus missioners the Rev. Craig Loya and the Rev. Susan Terry will participate in the service, which is open to all members of the diocese and the public.
 
Student peer ministers at the Episcopal campus ministry at Kansas State University will take the lead in coming days in organizing an ongoing response by college students across the diocese, reaching out especially to Episcopal students at Virginia Tech, according to a statement on the diocese's website.

Similar weekly gatherings at Canterbury campus ministries around the country will no doubt focus on the events at Virginia Tech.

Wolfe has asked that all parishes and members of the diocese offer special prayers this week and this coming Sunday on behalf of those killed and injured and their families.

"We pray that God's healing peace will enfold the Virginia Tech community in the midst of their loss and lead them to an awareness of God's presence in the midst of unspeakable tragedy," said Wolfe, the campus missioners, and Deacon Stephen Segebrecht, chair of the diocese's higher education committee said in a statement.

California Bishop Marc Andrus, who along with his wife Sheila are Virginia Tech graduates, said in a statement on the diocese's website that he came into the Episcopal Church through the Canterbury Fellowship on the campus.

"As I think about the interconnected community of students, faculty, and staff in that rural, beautiful part of Virginia, such a senseless act is all the more poignant and indeed confusing," Andrus wrote.

He asked the diocese's members to hold the Virginia Tech and Blacksburg communities in their hearts.

At the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue in New York City, the community's usual noon hour Holy Eucharist included special prayers and reflections in the wake of the tragedy.
 
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on April 16 that the people of the Episcopal Church are shocked and saddened by the shootings at Virginia Tech. "We hold in our prayers the students, faculty, and staff of that institution, their families, and all affected by [these] events," she said. "As we begin to confront this senseless loss, we will continue to pray for all who grieve and search for understanding."

The Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (NCCUSA) of which the Episcopal Church is a member, offered prayers for the victims and their families, and reiterated the organization's 40-year-old call for stricter gun ownership laws.

"My pastor's heart breaks for the families of those who died today," he said in an April 16 statement posted on the NCCUSA website. "I pray for them and for those who witnessed the unspeakable violence that destroyed the peace of a spring day on a scenic campus at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia."

"Despite repeated calls from faith and community leaders to Congress and presidents nothing ever seems to get done to stem the tide," Edgar continued. "How many more will have to die before we say enough is enough? How many more senseless deaths will have to be counted before we enact meaningful firearms control in this country? How many more of our pastors, rabbis and imams will have to preside over caskets of innocent victims of gun violence because a nation refused to stop the proliferation of these small weapons of mass destruction?"