INDIANAPOLIS — In response to gun violence happening throughout Indianapolis, including last week's mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx facility that left eight people dead, faith leaders in the Butler-Tarkington community hosted a candlelight vigil outside of St. Thomas Aquinas Church Sunday night.
“As people of faith in the Butler-Tarkington community, we share a common grief for the devastation gun violence has wrought in our city,” said Rev. Mary Dicken of Meridian Street United Methodist Church. “All of our faith traditions value human life and believe that every life holds sacred worth. Our hearts are broken by the third mass shooting in our city just this year and the countless individuals killed by gun violence again and again in our community. We are called to gather together as the faith community of Butler-Tarkington to put our feelings into words and our words into action.”
“For too long, the epidemic of gun violence has torn through our families and our communities with very little action from our elected leaders,” said Jamie Hinson-Rieger of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis. “Offering thoughts and prayers without the support of concrete action isn’t enough, and it isn’t keeping our families safe. Gun violence in America is a public health crisis and it’s time our elected officials treat it as such, by enacting policies and committing funding to proven strategies to address the issue.”
