Rev. Sharon Washington Risher, whose mother Ethel Lee Lance was one of the victims of the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, S.C., will speak at Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church on Sunday, Aug. 20 at the 11:15 a.m. service.

Risher, who also lost two cousins and a childhood friend in the tragedy, has been an advocate for re-examining the nation's gun laws and is one of the national spokespersons for the grassroots advocacy groups Moms Demand Gun Sense in America and the Everytown Survivor Network.

Her sermon at Asbury is part of the church’s 2017 Summer Preaching Series, which brings an array of clergy men and women, inspirational speakers, educators and authors to the church each Sunday throughout July and August while Asbury’s pastor, Rev. Billy Hester, is on sabbatical. 

While nothing can mitigate the loss that Risher and the other victims’ loved ones have suffered, she has managed to identify bits of positivity that emerged from the calamity and is doing her best to capitalize on them.  

“It’s about turning tragedy into triumph. I’m an accidental activist. Never, ever in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have the national platform that I have. But now I’m out there, spreading the word through my faith contacts, and letting others know that their faith can carry them through tragedies of different scales. It doesn’t even have to be gun violence. We all experience tragedies in our everyday lives,” Risher said. “That’s the triumph that came out of this for me. I’ve been given a national platform to go forth and talk about gun violence, raise awareness, help change our laws. Tragedies can triumph into means of change.”

She is traveling the country extensively, visiting major universities, colleges, churches, conventions and other locations to talk about her personal journey of loss, faith, forgiveness, racism and gun-violence prevention. Risher is quick to add that gun violence is a touchy topic for a number of reasons and while it’s an issue that she firmly believes in addressing, she doesn’t approach it from an angle that many might expect.

“People, a lot of times, would rather not go there. They’ve never lived through gun violence; it has never personally touched their lives. But it needs to be heard, and part of my message and my mission now is to get that out there. But I want to let people know it’s not about taking their guns away or denying them their Second Amendment rights. It’s about coming together to bring common-sense gun laws in order to prevent such things from happening,” Risher said.

More effective gun laws may have saved the lives of those killed in the Emanuel AME shooting. The admitted Charleston shooter, Dylann Roof, bought his gun due to what now is known as the “Charleston loophole.” His admission of possessing an illegal drug should have disqualified him from acquiring a firearm, which he used to kill nine church congregants, but the three-day waiting period lapsed before the FBI could locate the records pertaining to Roof’s case.

Risher does not push for the eradication of weapons or other extreme restrictions that likely wouldn’t be enforceable anyway. She simply wants people to understand that Americans have complex relationships with their firearms, and part of that is the obligation to be responsible and accountable as a gun owner.

“Every day, we have people who are losing their kids or parents or other family members and friends to gun violence. I am doing this not only to share my story, but to hear theirs and help them ‘triumph through tragedy.’ To hear other mothers and fathers talk about how this has affected their lives, and giving them a new mission in their lives – that’s what it’s about,” Risher said. “I hear stories about shootings and the effects they have on families and people being torn apart. How do you get over such grief? How do you navigate that? It’s heartbreaking. And my mission is just to continue to put the word out there. To help people understand how gun violence affects not just families, but communities as a whole. Everyone is affected by it.”

The reverend is looking forward to visiting Savannah for the first time in her life, and delivering her message to Asbury’s parishioners and other community members. She plans to focus her sermon on the importance of employing faith to navigate through extreme hardship and will stress the fact that tragedy does not have to define an individual.

Risher is also eager to view Asbury’s “Ribbons for a Reason” memorial. The initiative was launched in June 2015 following the Emanuel AME Church shooting in an effort to call attention to the unmet need for tighter regulations and to honor the people who have been shot and killed in the City of Savannah. The church affixes an orange ribbon to its courtyard fence on Henry Street each time another local resident dies because of gun violence. Ribbons hung in memory of youth who have died as a result of gun violence are a lighter orange shade.

“We know you can’t possibly have 100 percent safety rate when it comes to firearms usage. But if we could just tighten up the laws or add new stipulations to the laws we already have, we believe that this would help. It would avoid having parents and others go through such pain,” Risher said. “The nine lives that were taken from us, my mission is to make sure that people don’t forget them. That their lives will be a catalyst for change. We have so much hate going on, but hate won’t win. We hope others will get this message deep down in their hearts and, in their own personal way, will do something to help ensure that it won’t win.”

The public is welcome to attend Risher’s sermon on Aug. 20.