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SANDY — This Sunday, Utahns are holding a vigil to remember the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, nine years ago and the 429 people who lost their lives to gun violence in Utah in 2020.
"Over the past 10 years, Utah has seen a steady increase in gun violence. Each year the number of people and families ravaged by gun violence goes up in Utah. We hope to come together as a community to recognize and hold hope for those lives. We hope through this evening of music, readings and candle lighting we can collectively reflect and commit to ending this national tragedy," said Terri Gilfillan, board chair of The Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah.
The vigil is being held at the Community of Grace Presbyterian Church and is hosted by the church and the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah. The church will be full of candles, the bulletin will list the names of gun victims and there will be a musical program.
Pastor Hansen Wendlandt of the Community of Grace Presbyterian Church said in anticipation for the vigil, they held a forum which included representatives from at least five different churches including Presbyterians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Episcopalians, Methodists and members of local wards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as others from the community.
He said the discussion included various perspectives and participants worked to figure out what the issues were, find common ground and consider solutions. Wendlandt said any potential path forward would need communication, and they encouraged people to consider each others' perspectives.
"It's a rich problem, and for good reason," Wendlandt said.
He said he was encouraged about where the conversation at the forum went, and he hopes to model similar conversations and help people move forward on issues with a religious perspective. The vigil, however, is simply to focus on the healing aspects.
Wendlandt said he views gun violence as a religious issue, rather than a political one.
"This is an issue of faith that politics has found to be useful in its division. Because of that, people get scared to talk about it and when churches can do that, they're modeling that for the world how to get through any of the runs we have with the inspiration that is sort of endemic to the organizations they are," Wendlandt said.
He said sometimes it seems like people forget that they can address an issue from a standpoint of moral clarity and that turning over issues to politics can lead to missed opportunities for progression.
This is the first year that Community of Grace Presbyterian Church has hosted the vigil, but Nancy Halden, communications director for the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, said the vigil has happened each year since 2013, the year following the Sandy Hook shooting. Typically there is a musical program, candlelight, pictures of gun violence victims, and a simple service but they are primarily planned by the church that is hosting it.
"We find that a lot of churches want to join with us. They see this as a moral issue, people are dying," Halden said.
Halden said there has been an uptick in gun violence which has caused concerns. She said that for a while incidents of gun violence were rising sharply, although she said that the trend has started to flatten over the last few years. She also said that homicides have risen nationwide and in Utah.
"I think we need to mourn the loss, I think there's value in mourning, and I think shootings of all kinds, gun violence of all kinds, has become common to the point where ... it just blows by us. So I think it's important to pause and to say, 'no, this is really not right,'" Halden said.
The vigil will be held on Sunday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. at 2015 E. Newcastle Drive in Sandy.
