[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 113 (Wednesday, July 13, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H4825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                   WELCOMING REVEREND MALCOLM J. BYRD

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentlewoman from New York (Miss 
Rice) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Miss RICE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to welcome Reverend 
Malcolm J. Byrd, the Pastor of Jackson Memorial AME Zion Church in 
Hempstead, New York, and to thank Reverend Byrd for leading us in 
prayer on the House floor today.
  I first met Reverend Byrd 1 year ago yesterday, just a few weeks 
after nine Black men and women were murdered inside Mother Emanuel AME 
Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Reverend Byrd held a service and 
presented a colorful patchwork quilt that the children of his church 
created to send to the Mother Emanuel congregation.
  Leading us in prayer, Reverend Byrd said that day: ``O, God, there is 
a long road that leads from Hempstead to Charleston, but there is one 
thing that makes us closer than the miles that separate us: We are all 
part of the family of God.''
  Today, as we find ourselves once again in the wake of tragic 
violence, we are blessed to have Reverend Byrd here with us. He is a 
man of God, a man of faith, a man of peace and hope. He is also a man 
of vision, a man who sees America as it is, as it can be, as it must 
and will be: a patchwork quilt in which people of all colors and creeds 
are sewn together as brothers and sisters, united in our common 
humanity.
  There is a long road that leads from Hempstead to Orlando and to 
Baton Rouge and to Falcon Heights and to Dallas. There is a long road 
that leads from Hempstead to Washington, D.C., but I thank God that 
Reverend Byrd has traveled that road safely today. I pray that we all 
take his message to heart and never forget that, no matter what 
distance lies between us or what walls may divide us, we are all a part 
of the family of God.

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