News Media Contact: Thomas S. McAnally • (615) 742-5470 • Nashville, Tenn.
BALTIMORE (UMNS) -- United Methodist Bishop Felton E. May pledged to
work
for gun control during the Feb. 10 funeral of a slain police officer
and
called on all congregations in the church to teach the commandments,
"Thou
shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not kill."
Ann Prothero and 6-year-old daughter Holly comfort each other during the funeral.
"As a society we must control guns, but more than that, we must write God's commandments on human hearts," said May, who leads the United Methodist Church's Washington Area. The bishop spoke at the funeral of Bruce A. Prothero, a 35-year-old Baltimore County police sergeant who was shot during a jewelry store robbery in Pikesville, Md.
"May we all repent of the violence that brings us here today," he said.
"May
we repent for every person we have failed to reach with the love of
Jesus
Christ."
The funeral was held at Reisterstown United Methodist Church in suburban Baltimore, where Prothero was an active member along with his wife Ann and their five children. Ann Prothero's late grandfather, John Warman, was a United Methodist bishop. Her uncle, the Rev. Oden Warman, who read Scripture at the funeral, is superintendent of the church's Washington (Pa.) District of the Western Pennsylvania Conference.
Speaking directly to Ann Prothero, May said, "In memory of Bishop Warman, a mentor of mine in the episcopacy, and your husband, I pledge my leadership in the United Methodist Church to assist the state and federal governments to do whatever is necessary to keep and remove guns from the hands of criminals."
The Rev. Frank Trotter, pastor of Reisterstown United Methodist Church, said that Prothero considered police work a divine calling rather than just a job. "He told me, for him, being a police officer was a call from God," he said. "He believed that the Lord Jesus Christ walked with him."
During the service, Ann Prothero read a letter she'd written to her husband after his death. "We lived our lives with no regret," she read. "You were the light of your children's eyes, and we jumped for joy every day when you walked through that door."
Their children include Holly, 6, triplets, Parker, Andrew and Kimberly, 4, and Hannah who will be 2 on Feb. 20.
John Warman, Ann Prothero's father, spoke about Prothero's devotion to his children. "His children had more fun in their yard than most kids have on a trip to Disney World," he said.
In a letter to the congregation, read by Trotter as part of the service, Holly Prothero spoke of camping, bike riding and playing games with her father. "I always had fun with my dad," she wrote.
"If we want to make the most out of his life, we should live our lives the way he did," John Warman said of his son-in-law. "We should love each other; we should serve gladly; we should live with joy and energy and hold nothing back."20
During the service, more than 1,000 police officers, including
delegations
from as far away as California, Texas and Canada, stood at attention
outside
the church. Following the service, police cars and motorcycles led an
eight-mile procession to the cemetery.
Prothero was working part-time as a jewelry store security guard to earn extra income on Feb. 7 when robbers grabbed some jewelry and ran out of the store, according to the Baltimore County Police Department. Prothero chased them into a parking lot where he was shot twice in the side. He died 45 minutes later.
In his sermon, Trotter said he did not have many answers for the grieving family. "The one thing I am sure of," he said, "is that God did not cause Bruce to die."
*Snyder is director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
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