Several vigils held in Nashville after Monday’s Covenant School shooting
‘There’s been a lot of tears today.’
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Several vigils took place around Nashville Monday night so people could grieve The Covenant School shooting.
The Belonging Co Church held a public prayer for their community. The Lead Pastor, Henry Seeley, said some of the families who attend their church also send their children to The Covenant School.
“It’s challenging honestly. There’s been a lot of tears today,” said Seeley.
Prayers, song, and so many tears filled the church Monday. But so did a sense of togetherness and community. Seeley said,
“The Bible says to mourn with those who mourn and to weep with those who weep and that is why we wanted to come together tonight.”
Seeley is also a husband and father.
He said his wife was driving through Green Hills when emergency crews were first responding to the shooting. As police cars and ambulances took over the road, his wife pulled into a parking lot to make space.
“A lady pulled up in a car next to her, got out of the car and just started running and said I’ve got to get to the school. My child’s at the school and I think at that moment we realized there was something really terrible taking place,” said Seeley.
Thinking about his children and the other families today has been the hardest for him. Seeley explained,
“Knowing that my kids got up and went to school today. To know that other parents woke up today thinking my kids just going to school, I’ll never see the kid again is pretty heartbreaking as a father. And it’s hard to make sense of that.”
The Belonging Co Church will also hold another prayer service Tuesday afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. However, it will not be livestreamed like Monday night’s public prayer.
People also processed their pain at the Cathedral of the Incarnation Monday night.
Bishop J. Mark Spalding said, “People came to mass today full of heart and pain and grief and all throughout mass I saw tears of various parishioners who gathered. And they just need to come together and be with another.”
He went on to say, “everybody needs their sacred space and the church of course is easily seen as that so we kept our doors open and we invited others as well as many of the churches throughout Nashville.”
And Christian singer Lauren Daigle postponed her album preview concert to hold a community-wide vigil in its place at Marathon Music Works.
Heiler Sweely and her husband attended.
Reacting to the shooting she said, “Something has to change. This can’t keep happening. And I don’t know how close to home it has to hit.”
Sweely continued, “I think community is the way we process things. Get through them and move forward in the community. Make change and remember the people that we lost.”
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