To Acknowledge the Witness of Charlie Kirk and Establish September 10 as Day of Prayer for Faithful Witnesses in Our Time

Official Workbook overture source text

4-53 
To Acknowledge the Witness of Charlie Kirk  
and Establish September 10 as Day of Prayer  
for Faithful Witnesses in Our Time 
WHEREAS, Holy Scripture commends the faithful witness of 
those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, confessed Christ unto 
death, as seen in the souls under the altar crying for justice (Rev . 
6:9–11) and the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us in the faith 
(Heb. 12:1); and 
WHEREAS, The Lutheran Confessions honor the saints and 
martyrs not for their merits or intercession, but as examples of 
God’s grace in sustaining believers through suffering and death for 
the Gospel’s sake (Augsburg Confession XXI, “Of the Worship of 
the Saints,” which teaches that we should give thanks to God for 
their faithful testimony and imitate their confession of Christ); and 
WHEREAS, The Synod maintains a calendar of commemorations 
for prophets, apostles, reformers, and faithful witnesses who 
proclaimed the truth of Scripture amid persecution, thereby 
reminding the Church that Christ Himself is the Lord of history and 
the One who preserves His confessors; and 
W
HEREAS, These commemorations teach the faithful to give 
thanks for God’s sustaining grace, to take courage from those who 
endured opposition for the sake of the Gospel, and to be 
strengthened in the hope of the resurrection, confessing with St. 
Paul that “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Tim. 2:12); 
and 
WHEREAS, Charlie Kirk, a public Christian and outspoken 
defender of biblical truths on life, marriage, and religious liberty, 
was assassinated by sniper fire on Sept. 10, 2025, while addressing 
a Turning Point USA event in Utah; and 
WHEREAS, Kirk’s public efforts and final witness were 
inseparably tied to his confession of Christ, and his death occurred 
in the context of cultural hostility toward the Gospel, reminding the 
Church of the words of St. Peter: “[I]f anyone suffers as a Christian, 
let him not be ashamed, but  let him 
glorify God in that name” (1 
Pet. 4:16); and 
WHEREAS, Sept. 10 provides a fitting place within the Church 
Year to remember faithful witnesses of Christ, standing in 
continuity with the season that turns our attention to the apostles, 
prophets, and evangelists, culminating in the Feast of St. Matthew 
(Sept. 21); and 
WHEREAS, Locating this remembrance within the Church’s 
ordered calendar helps the faithful see that the same Lord who 
called and sustained the first witnesses continues to raise up