"In grief we tremble before God..."

(picture from electronic iraq)

It is the news that many of us who have been praying for the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnapped in Iraq most feared: the absence of Tom Fox on the videotape released on Tuesday was indeed because he is dead.

"Why are we here?" Tom Fox asked before he and his colleagues were abducted.

We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exist within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.

Into your hands, O Lord, we commend to you the soul of your servant, Tom Fox. May you have mercy upon him, and may you have mercy upon all those who dehumanize and are dehumanized.

Please continue to keep Norman Kember, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden in your prayers that they may be released soon.