Community Corner

Connecticut Shooting Victims Remembered at Lafayette Church

Several dozen people attend memorial Friday morning for the 26 school shooting victims

Several dozen people gathered in Lafayette on a rainy Friday morning to remember 26 people who died in a shooting on the other side of the country.

The Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church held a memorial at 9:30 a.m. Friday, one week to the minute after

As more than 40 people somberly listened in the church's chapel, Pastor Peter Whitelock said the country has suffered through a week of sadness.

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"Our thoughts, hopes and prayers have been with the families and with our nation," said Whitelock. "We have been stumbling through our grief."

Whitelock said people of faith should gather in not only grief but also in consolation. He said they can honor the victims, suffer together and ponder what happened.

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"We as a nation can gather together to ask hard questions about how we care for our children," said Whitelock.

The service also included a reading of Psalm 23 as well as a reading of the names of all 26 shooting victims accompanied by a bell after each name.


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