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After Tragic Week, Sheffield Gathers For Prayer Service

Two Christian clergypeople stand before a pulpit in a white church hall.
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
Pastor Erik Karas of Trinity Christ Church Sheffield and Reverend Jill Graham of First Congregational Church of Sheffield.

On Saturday, dozens gathered in Sheffield, Massachusetts, to grieve together after a tragic week.

Old Parish Church sits in the heart of Sheffield, an idyllic Berkshire town just south of Great Barrington in the southwestern corner of Massachusetts. Established in 1735, the church’s current structure was erected in 1760. At a special service Saturday evening, its pews were full, and songs of mourning reverberated off its tall white walls.

“It’s for someone who is leaving this life and going on to the next life. Presumably in heaven," said Trudy Weaver Miller. She and her husband John-Arthur Miller sang the Civil War era gospel hymn “Angel Band.”

“It’s calling the angels to come, and towards the end, the words say, ‘I hear the noise of wings,’” she told WAMC.

On March 10th, Samya Stumo – who was raised in Sheffield – died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. On March 13th, a structure fire in Sheffield led authorities to discover five bodies inside a house on Home Road. The Berkshire District Attorney is investigating the incident as a quadruple murder-suicide. The alleged assailant, Luke Karpinski, is said to have killed his wife Justine Wilbur and their three children Alex, Zoe, and Marek before setting the home on fire and taking his own life.

“This is a week like no other. Absolutely," said Jim Collingwood. "The whole community is in shock.”

Local business owner Collingwood has lived in Sheffield for six decades.

“It’s awesome to see that the community will respond," he told WAMC. "And the community’s always responded to tragedy in our past. This is just what Sheffield does.”

“In this day and age, unfortunately, it’s almost inevitable that it’s going to happen where you live," said Lisa Paris. She has lived in Sheffield for almost thirty years. “And maybe that’s a cynical view, but that’s sort of where I am," she said. "It’s like, oh, yeah, why not us.”

She came to Old Parish Church with her dog Franco – a therapy dog rescued from Puerto Rico. Volunteers for the the Berkshire Medical Reserve Corps, Paris and Franco have worked in Sheffield’s Undermountain Elementary school for the past three years. They were called into the school Friday morning after the Berkshire DA indicated the incident on Home Road was being investigated as a quadruple murder-suicide.

“Really, really heavy," said Paris. "Because it is such a small community, and because all the kids know each other. And even if it’s not your child, it hits close to the heart. So it’s pretty grim. And unprecedented, to use a word that’s being used a lot. And again, for this community, particularly sad.”

Saturday’s service was arranged as an interfaith prayer gathering by local clergy. One of the organizers was Pastor Erik Karas, of Christ Trinity Church – which faces Old Parish Church in Sheffield just across Route 7.

“The idea is that together we can have the strength to take a step towards healing and wholeness, and that that ripples out into the world into the world in ways that we can never fully imagine," said Karas. "And we’re counting on that to happen. I don’t know how it will, but we’re counting on it.”

From the pulpit, Karas connected the town’s suffering to the attacks on mosques in New Zealand that left fifty people dead.

“Human brokenness has played itself out this past week in the most horrific of ways," said the pastor. "It has left the heart of our community broken, and the spirit of our neighbors crushed and our town shrouded in darkness.”

Reverend Jill Graham, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Sheffield, shared a statement from the Stumo family about their daughter.

“As a person, Samya was a fearless, radiant spirit who inspired others to live brightly and fully," read Graham. "Professionally, Samya was ambitious and passionate about revolutionizing global health. She cared most about treating all people and patients as human beings, particularly in the context of their culture, family, and individuality. She advocated for healthcare to be human centered, rejecting the status quo in global health development. It is this woman that we offer our thanks for today, even as we grieve.”

Among the gathered clergy who offered invocations, prayer, and song, was Rabbi Liz Hirsch of Temple Anshe Amunim in Pittsfield. She led the assemblage in a Jewish psalm of comfort and strength: “Those who sow, who sow in tears, will reap in joy.”

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