Harrison urges members to join Sept. 12 ‘Day of Remembrance’

On Aug. 22, thousands of pro-life Lutherans and other like-minded people gathered at Planned Parenthood facilities across the nation to join in a “National Day of Protest.”

The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, is again inviting LCMS members to gather on Sept. 12 — this time to participate in a “Day of Remembrance” for aborted children. The event is intended to take place not just at Planned Parenthood locations, but at LCMS churches, schools, homes and by the gravesides of children who have been aborted.

“The days are indeed busy; your various vocations fill your time, as they should! But pausing to remember the deaths of these babies, to pray for those who are plagued by guilt over the deaths of their children, to come alongside women in crisis pregnancies is worth it because each one of them is of worth to Christ,” Harrison wrote in a Sept. 1 email to LCMS congregations and rostered workers. “His forgiveness and His love are worth it! Reminding the world of the One who died and rose for 10-week-old babies even as He died and rose for 10-year-olds and 100-year-olds is worth it.”

“Let us together kneel before the Crucified One who yet lives, who is working all things — even death and suffering and hardship — for good,” he wrote in the email. “He causes us to pray and — wonder of wonders! — has seen fit to remember us day in and day out, no matter who we are or what we’ve done.”

The LCMS is providing several free resources to use with the Sept. 12 event:

• “A Sermon in Memory of the Victims of Abortion”;
• “A Vigil of Repentance in Remembrance of the Victims of Abortion”; and
• an LCMS video: “It Is Time to End Abortion.”

Pastors are encouraged to use these resources to organize a prayer vigil at their church or school.

The order of service remembers “the sons and daughters that were never born, … the brothers and sisters who were never able to play with their siblings,” and all those who were never able to fulfill their vocations as pastors, teachers, business people, farmers, artists, and mothers and fathers, it is noted in that service.

“One of the reasons to remember past tragedy is so that it will not be repeated. One of the reasons to remember tragedy that still continues is so that we can be motivated to bring it to an end. Let us give an offering in memory of those millions of babies. Let us offer ourselves,” the leader will say to those in attendance during the vigil’s Rite of Hope and Comfort.

To find the locations of gravesites and memorials dedicated to aborted children around the country, visit abortionmemorials.com. Details about events planned at these locations for the Day of Remembrance also are available on that website.

Posted Sept. 2, 2015

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