Tears for Matthew Shepard, tears for his parents. Gratitude for the Episcopal Church.



WASHINGTON — Matthew Shepard, who was murdered at 21 years old in 1998 in an anti-gay hate crime, will be interred at Washington National Cathedral following a service of thanksgiving and remembrance on Friday, Oct. 26, at the request of the Shepard family. This Friday, Oct. 12, is the 20th anniversary of Shepard’s death. The service will celebrate and recall Shepard’s life and will be followed by a private interment in the Cathedral crypt. The service will be presided over by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, and the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay priest to be consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church.  

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It was a horrid and brutal murder. My brother in Christ Matthew was cruelly slain.  There is never a good reason for murder.  There are many bad reasons.  In Matthew's case it was because he was gay. 

He left this life and he also left a family: his parents Judy Shepard and  Dennis Shepard, and his sibling Logan Shepard.

Matthew was an Episcopalian and an acolyte in his local parish. He was brutalized and murdered in Wyoming.  But he was murdered 21 years ago. 

So why were his mortal remains re-interned in our Episcopal National Cathedral today?

One of his parents spoke today on National Public Radio. She/he said that Matthew's remains were now in a a safe place; a place where his burial place was safe and could not ever be vandalized. 

Can you even imagine the  possibility of the vandalizing of a grave?

Matthew's remains are now interred in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church.  I like that.

But his soul and spirit are in the merciful and just hands of God. I like that even more.

If you go to the the Washington National Cathedral web site you may well be able to view today's service with Bishops Budde and Robinson.


Preparing the burial marker.










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