Those efforts range from the continuing individual and corporate prayers of Episcopalians around the church to a planned April 21 gathering for area clergy at Christ Episcopal Church in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech's home, where the Episcopal campus chaplain is spending most of his time being with students as they deal with their reactions.

Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a South Korean who was a resident alien in the United States and Virginia Tech senior, apparently opened fire in a dormitory and then a classroom building, killing 32 people before committing suicide. It was the deadliest shooting in United States history.

The Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, based at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City, will sponsor the April 21 gathering at Christ Church, titled "A Gathering in the Midst of Tragedy."

Diocese of Southwestern Virginia Bishop Neff Powell, who is spending his sabbatical in New York City, met April 18 with George Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, and psychologist Dr. Karen Binder-Brynes to begin planning the day. As part of that planning, the three talked via telephone conference call with the Rev. Elizabeth Morgan, Christ Church's interim rector; the Rev. Scott Russell, Christ Church associate rector and campus chaplain; the Rev. Phyllis Spiegel, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Christiansburg, Virginia and dean of the local convocation; and Rich Ohlsen, Episcopal Relief and Development's disaster coordinator.

Packard told ENS that the planning group hopes that the gathering will provide a time during which people can be with others who are experiencing similar -- and normal -- spiritual, emotional and even physical reactions to the shootings.

"You have to walk a very sensitive line here because everybody's urging you to try to see the hope in the situation and move towards healing," Packard said. "They can't do any of that now. They just have to experience what they're experiencing and be allowed to have it, but they have to also know that things aren't hopeless and the way you do that is to bring people together."

Packard said he realizes that while there are lessons learned from recovery efforts during other disasters such as the attacks of September 11, 2001 or Hurricane Katrina, those lessons have to been passed along with sensitivity. Each disastrous event brings with it unique kinds of trauma that outsiders cannot completely understand, he said.

A "man-made" disaster such as the Virginia Tech shootings, for instance, may cause people to feel unsafe and unsettled in a way that natural disasters might not, Packard said.

People, no matter how close or how far from Virginia Tech they might be, "should allow for these feelings to occur" because they are normal reactions, he said.

"Gathering people in prayer and worship is enormously helpful and healthy because it allows you to recalibrate and balance" because of the way that these feelings can make people feel very alone, Packard said.

While many congregations kept the doors to their buildings open for people to come in for prayer, such isolated experiences need to be balanced with opportunities for group prayer and conversation, he said.

"We don't need any more isolating, solitary events," Packard said. "People need more of a sense of communion and fellowship."
 
Russell, Christ Church's campus chaplain, told ENS that he has been experiencing a range of emotions within himself and observing them in the students to whom he ministers. Russell was flying home from vacation in Germany while the shootings were occurring. Then he had to drive back to Blacksburg from New York City. When he arrived home on the evening of April 17, people who drove by as he was unloading his car honked their horns in greeting. Some stopped to give him a hug.

Everyone was "just needing to see each other and touch each other," he said via cell phone from the Virginia Tech chapel.

Russell said that people's reactions and emotions are "all over the place." One student said she is struggling with her faith, some students are angry, one who is a regular at the Canterbury Fellowship activities has not come to gatherings held this week. Russell said he and others took that student to dinner one night and told her that they would only leave her alone for a short time before they would insist that she re-join their gatherings.

"We're just being patient with each other at this point," he said.

Russell said that reactions of the Virginia Tech shootings are unique. It's not like people are hungry or homeless as some were after Hurricane Katrina, he said. "We're just in grief."

What has helped, in part, has been the way people outside of Blacksburg have reached out to Virginia Tech students. Russell said that when he returned from Germany, his email inbox was filled with messages of support from campus ministers all over the country. He has been printing those emails and sharing them with students.

"That has meant more than anything -- to know that everyone's thinking about us, praying for us," he said.

Yet, this time of grief does feel "somewhat private," he said. "Some of the students don't want to be hovered over or smothered."

Thus, online communities have been important in the last few days. "This has been really the first tragedy of this kind where these online communities have existed so it's interesting to see how it's changing their responses," he said.

Condolences have also come by way of messages written on the "wall" of the Canterbury Fellowship's facebook.com group. They have helped both the students who receive them and those who send them, Russell said.

"They're able to at least publicly express their emotions," he said. "That's where they went the day of the shooting. They went on facebook to say how they were feeling."

"It's good for them to know that everyone is out there and really connecting with them and extending their wishes through things like that," Russell said. "It's an easy way to touch them electronically without being too invasive."

The Diocese of Southwestern Virginia is also providing a space on its website for people to share experiences, offer condolences and help, and to find resources.

Russell also noted that many of the undergraduate students are somewhat used to mass tragedies. They were in middle school when the massacre at a high school in Columbine, Colorado occurred. "It's in their psyche," he said. "This kind of tragedy is not unheard-of for them. It's just suddenly very present and they're suddenly caught up in it."

Russell predicted that students will be dealing with the aftermath for a long time. Noting that graduation is set for May 1, he said that local congregations in the students' hometowns need to be prepared to be pro-active.

"But let them do it on their time and on their terms," he said.