One-Year Anniversary Commemoration Service Held to Remember Charleston Victims and Pray for Orlando
Civilitas Group partners with Mother Emanuel to Stand Against Hate and Call the Christian Church to Reconciliation, Unity and Love
Released by Katie Martin, alarryross.com
One year after the tragic shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the church is partnering with the Civilitas Group to host a National Commemoration Service to honor the nine slain and call for reconciliation and forgiveness.
The Civilitas Group, a multi-racial coalition of Christian leaders, including pastors, university presidents, heads of parachurch organizations and others, will issue a call to all churches to stand against hate and work toward unity. The service will also provide a time of prayer for the victims and families of the recent attack in Orlando.
This event is planned for June 17, 2016, 4–5:30pm (EDT), at Mother Emanuel AME Church, 110 Calhoun Street, in Charleston SC. Doors open at 3pm.
The event is the culmination of a yearlong effort to build strategic relationships between the majority white Evangelical and African-American faith leaders and end racial injustice in churches and communities. The Civilitas Group will release the After Charleston: Call to Action, as well as the After Charleston Tool Kit for Local Church Engagement, to provide resources to churches nationwide to fight racism in their own sphere of influence. Those expected to be at the event include?
- John Tecklenburg, mayor of Charleston
- Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark, pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church
- Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, Jr., president emeritus of Morehouse College
- Dr. Phil Ryken, president of Wheaton College
- Bishop Claude Alexander, pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte
- Dr. Jim Wallis, founder and president of The Sojourners Community
- Senior officials from state and federal government
Other Charleston SC events are planned in the days following this service, including a Unity Walk.
The Charleston church shootings took place around 9pm the evening of Wednesday, June 17, 2015, with nine parishioners murdered in the church. Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is online here.
The Pulse Orlando nightclub shootings were in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12, 2016, with over 100 people shot. Pulse is online here.