Sharon Risher: Hope and Forgiveness

The Reverend Sharon Washington Risher was catapulted into the limelight after the Charleston, S.C. shooting at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. Her beloved mother and the church’s sexton, Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance, were killed along with eight others, including two cousins and a childhood friend. Since that horrific tragedy, Sharon has been very outspoken about the nation’s gun laws and is one of the national spokespersons for the grassroots advocacy groups Everytown and Moms Demand Gun Sense. She has appeared on CNN on several occasions and was interviewed by Time Magazine, Marie-Claire magazine, Guardian-BBC radio, among others. She also has visited President Barack Obama at the White House on several occasions, and she has been a guest speaker for several Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial events.

Until shortly after her mother’s heartrending death, Rev. Risher had served Rice Chapel AME Church as associate pastor for congregational care, where she preached and led the women’s ministries of the church. Sharon’s book, “For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre” was published in June 2019, coinciding with the four-year anniversary of the shooting.