June: A month of remembrance in the Lowcountry and at Mepkin
At Mepkin’s Charleston Firefighters Memorial, nine stone blocks, one representing each firefighter, serve as large benches.
June in the Charleston area is marked by the anniversaries two tragedies: the June 17, 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church and the June 18, 2007 fire at Sofa Super Store.
If you find yourself at Mepkin, there are two opportunities for you to remember, reflect and offer prayer: the memorial to the Charleston 9 Firefighters and the new Meditation Garden of Truth & Reconciliation. The Mepkin community is committed to living out their calling of intercessory prayer in union with the joys and sorrows of the surrounding local community and world.
On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, was invited into historic Mother Emanuel AME Church to pray with a Bible study group. Motivated by racial hatred, he shot and killed nine members of the historic African American church: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Singleton, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Susan Jackson, Ethel Lance and Myra Thompson.
The families of those killed in the shooting, despite their immense pain and suffering, offered forgiveness to the shooter as true models of Christian love; just as the nine victims were when they offered Dylann Roof a seat in their prayer circle.
On June 18, 2007, Charleston firefighters responded to a serious fire at the Charleston Sofa Super Store. Nine firefighters who went inside lost their lives in the line of duty when part of the structure collapsed and trapped them inside. Those nine were: Louis Mulkey, Mike Benke, Melven Champaign, William Hutchinson, Rodney “Brad” Baity, James Drayton, Mark Kelsey, Michael French and Brandon Thompson.
The Mepkin Charleston Firefighters Memorial dedicated to those men is located on the righthand side of the oak alee just as you enter the grounds. The silence and serenity of Mepkin situates the memorial in a faithful atmosphere for respecting, honoring, and remembering these fallen heroes.
The memorial was designed by local landscape architect J.R. Kramer as an interpretation of a Council Ring. Nine stone blocks, one representing each firefighter, serve as large benches. In the middle lies a circular altar structure patterned after a window in Mepkin Abbey’s church. It also includes a grove of nine oaks, one planted to honor each firefighter.
At the Meditation Garden of Peace & Reconciliation, a path features seven stations that call out points of history and moments of reflection.
Mepkin has recently established a Meditation Garden of Truth & Reconcilation meant to foster a greater understanding and empathy amongst people of different views and backgrounds through our shared past, shared pain and shared desire for reconciliation.
The garden is just outside the Henry Laurens family graveyard, incorporating the story of the slaves who once worked the plantation during Laurens’ time.
A path features seven stations that call out points of history and moments of reflection encouraging a journey to greater understanding.
The central figure in the garden is a sculpture that has been situated where those who were enslaved lie in unmarked graves, buried along with Native Americans. The sculpture, titled “Thy Father’s Hand,” features the crucified Christ in the Hand of God.