On Monday, June 13 at 7:00pm, there will be a joint Prayer Vigil at First Congregational Church of Greenwich, 108 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich led by First Congregational Church of Greenwich and The Second Congregational Church.
“Just after 2:00am on Sunday, violence ripped through a sanctuary, leaving 49 individuals so full of life and love, and a hate filled gunman, dead in its wake. You may not think of a night club as a sanctuary, but it is, and Pulse was.” – vigil organizers
“For our fellow LGBTQI children of God, night clubs like Pulse are sanctuaries filled with love, freedom, acceptance and hope. They are places where they can find wholeness when they have been hurt, abandoned, and thrown out by their families, friends, and religious communities,” organizers wrote in the release. “And, so we weep, because the holy ground of a sanctuary, a safe place, was shattered.”
“As churches, we deeply know the sacredness of sanctuaries. Today, our hearts are broken, as we try to find words to make sense of the unspeakable horror that took place in Orlando on Sunday. We struggle with what to do, knowing that violence also ripped through Orlando on Saturday night, when a singer doing what she loved was brutally murdered. We rage with anger because mass shooting have become so normal we even have a definition for them. We grasp for hope, when we know that violence took the lives of so many throughout our communities, state, nation, and world this weekend.”
On Monday, June 13, at 7:00pm, in the sanctuary of First Congregational Church of Greenwich, all in the community are invited to come together in silence, song, and word to remember that no matter what your religion or belief is, God stands on the side of love, hope, and justice, and that God most surely stands with the community of Orlando and our LGBTQI sisters and brothers.