Posted on 10/16/2018 6:27:26 PM PDT by NRx
Twenty years after the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard sparked national outrage, his ashes will be interred at Washington National Cathedral following a public service of remembrance.
The Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for Matthew Shepard on Oct. 26 will be led by Washington Bishop Marian Budde and retired New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop and an acquaintance of the Shepard family. Until now, Shepard’s parents had not settled on a final resting place for his remains out of concern the site would be vandalized. As they approached 20 years since their son’s death, Robinson helped the family make arrangements at Washington National Cathedral.
The tragedy of Shepard’s death is still a call to the nation to reject bigotry and “instead embrace each of our neighbors for who they are,” the Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, said in a news release. “The Shepard family has shown extraordinary courage and grace in keeping his spirit and memory alive, and the cathedral is honored and humbled to serve as his final resting place.”
Shepard, 21, was a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie when a passerby found him beaten and tied to a fence in October 1998. He died later at a hospital. The crime ignited an outcry against the prevalence of anti-gay violence.
His 1998 funeral was held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming, the congregation where he had served as an acolyte. Shepard also had attended the Canterbury Club while at college.
“Matt loved the Episcopal Church and felt welcomed by his church in Wyoming,” his mother, Judy Shepard, said in a cathedral news release. “For the past 20 years, we have shared Matt’s story with the world. It’s reassuring to know he now will rest in a sacred spot where folks can come to reflect on creating a safer, kinder world.”
About 200 people are interred at Washington National Cathedral, including President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller. Shepard’s interment will be a private ceremony, but the service of remembrance will be open to the public and could draw a capacity crowd of 1,500 to 2,000 people, the cathedral’s chief communications officer, Kevin Eckstrom, told Episcopal News Service.
The site may become something of a pilgrimage stop within the LGBTQ community, Eckstrom said. And Budde, quoted in the New York Times, underscored that the Episcopal Church is striving to offer a message of welcome to all people.
“A lot has changed [since Shepard’s killing], but not everything has changed,” Budde told the Times. “It felt really important for us to say that we believe LGBTQ people are beloved children of God, not in spite of their identities but because of who they are – who God created them to be.”
Well sinc ethe episcopals embrace so many secular lies, notmsurprising they will actually interr a lie.
He was a meth dealer who told two guys he was pissed at that he had GIVEN THEM AIDS.
He was NOT hung on a fence —he was sitting on the ground.
Why have so many MSM outfits repeated the “hung on a fence” lie?
Cuz it’s reminiscent of The Cruxificion.
They obviously want to turn him into some type of secular God.
Everything about this guy is a lie.
Jeffrey Curley was a ‘beloved child of God’ also.
Murdered by his bisexual drug dealer with whom he occasionally exchanged sex for drugs.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/stephen-jimenez-matthew-shepard_n_3914707.html
Sounds a bit like Obama.........
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Matt is a “martyr to homophobia,” and that’s that. No one cares that he was a meth user/dealer who suffered the unsurprising consequences of living the lifestyle of a meth user/dealer.
He will probably be interred there too.
For a drug deal gone wrong?
That’s what I’ve heard too. A celebration of faggotry.
America is becoming a joke
Øbozo was well known for exchanging homo-sex for drugs.
Willful defilement and they wonder what is causing the “Great Falling Away” of the Christian Church.
Maybe his vault can be in the men’s room near a stall.
Bet he did. Great spot for cruising.
Sounds like they may well be losing even the LGBTs now? And therefore need to do something to shore up that section of their base?
...and people wonder why I left the Episcofagian church...
I don’t.
Exactly! In addition, Matt Shepard was reported to be a pedophile. How sick to honor him!
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