Brazil plane crash victims mourned in cathedral service, Primates' prayers
Episcopal News Service. July 19, 2007 [071907-01]
Bob Williams
The Sao Paulo cathedral of the Episcopal-Anglican Church of Brazil was the site for a July 18 prayer service remembering the nearly 200 people who died July 17 when a TAM jet crashed at the city's main airport.
"We are now in a moment of extremely pain, a moment of sadness," said Primate Bishop Mauricio Andrade of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil in a July 18 statement (full text below). "Brazil is crying because the accident of ... flight number 3054."
Andrade, who is also diocesan bishop in Brasilia, had on July 6 welcomed to Brazil Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for a five-day visit with church leaders. The delegation entered the country at the Sao Paulo airport.
"Our prayers are with all who have been so deeply affected by this tragedy," Jefferts Schori said in a July 19 statement from Bogota where she is visiting the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Colombia. "We are all reminded that life is infinitely precious and unpredictable. May those who mourn be comforted and may those who died rest in the peace that passes understanding."
More about the Brazilian Church's ministries is online (largely in Portuguese) here.
The Brazilian Church's provincial secretary, the Rev. Canon Francisco de Assis da Silva, wrote a July 18 message thanking members of the Episcopal Church Center staff in New York City for their prayers and expressions of support.
He addressed the note to "colleagues from 815 and from around the Anglican world that is in solidarity with us in this tragic event that affected our country yesterday.
"Brazil is facing the second tragic plane crash in a short period of 10 months," he added. "The images from the plane crash last September are still in our minds. At that time 154 people died. Now we have a new traumatic impact.... May God console all the families affected by the tragedy.
"Receive from us sincere thanksgiving for this deepening solidarity" between the Brazilian Church and the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, he concluded.
From Brazil's Primate: Solidarity Statement (full text)
“I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” Psalm 121:1-2.
We are now in a moment of extremely pain, a moment of sadness, Brazil is crying because the accident of the airplane from TAM Airlines, flight number 3054.
We want to express our feelings to all the relatives and friends of the victims in this horrible accident, praying to God that they may all be consoled and that their hope in resurrection may be renewed as the Bible says: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rules, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38-39.
I ask everyone to pray together for the relatives, for the friends, so that God – in all His mercy and kindness – embraces each one of them with His love, so they may be strengthened by His Grace.
The Most Reverend Maurício Andrade
Primate Bishop of Brazil
Diocesan Bishop of Brasília