A coalition of Athens-area religious groups held an interfaith candlelight vigil on Sunday in support of immigrants and others affected by mass detentions, deportations and other violent actions of poorly-trained Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
“We’re here to bear witness to the lives lost due to ICE actions, their broken-hearted loved ones, to the children and families separated, sometimes forever, to the untold fear and suffering, to the cruelty of deportation en masse and without due process of law,” Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens told the assembled crowd.
About 150 people from a variety of religious traditions braved the cold to attend the vigil. Participants prayed, sang songs and silently held candles to honor the dead as the names of the deceased were read aloud.
The vigil was held following the sale of a large warehouse in Social Circle, GA to the Department of Homeland Security for the creation of an 8,500-bed detention center.
“8,500 spaces where people could be held for months at a time, far from families, far from anything that feels human,” said Rev. Tom Buchanan of Covenant Presbyterian Church. “8,500. That number should stop us in our tracks. Because each space represents someone’s mother. Someone’s son. Someone who has worked, worshipped, volunteered, paid taxes and tried to build a life in what they desperately wanted to believe was the land of the free.”
The facility is opposed by the Social Circle city manager Scott Taylor, who says his town doesn’t have sufficient infrastructure to accommodate it. The facility would more than double Social Circle’s current population of 5,500 people.
The Interfaith Clergy Partnership of Greater Athens and the Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition hosted the event. The vigil included music, prayer, reflections and brief remarks from ten faith leaders.
Organizers included leaders from Unitarian Universalist, Methodist, Quaker, Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian, Islamic, Baptist and Pagan congregations from Athens-Clarke and surrounding counties.
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2 thoughts on “Interfaith clergy hold candlelight vigil for immigrants and victims of ICE”
While you mention all of the Christian denominations in attendance, you miss mentioning Athens Area Pagans and their representative Lachele Foley. It’s this sort on invisibility that AAP was formed to combat.
I am so sorry! I have edited the article to include them. That was unintentional, I truly apologize.