The Sacred Space in the Numen Lumen Pavilion was filled Sunday night as members of the Elon community came together to share prayers of love and peace
Members of the Elon community came together in the Sacred Space in the Numen Lumen Pavilion to show their support for each other and the Jewish community in the wake of a shooting Saturday at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead.
Sounds of singing filled the Sacred Space as the group offered up prayers of healing and of peace led by Rabbi Sandra Lawson, associate chaplain of Jewish life. Some on Elon’s campus have connections to the Tree of Life Synagogue where the shootings occurred.
“We are all connected in some way, shape or form to those who have lost their lives,” Lawson told the group gathered Sunday night. “Hold each other. Talk to each other.”
Sunday night’s gathering brought together people from across faiths, with Lawson sharing stories about how people have come together in the time following the shooting to offer their support to each other and the Jewish community. We are more connected than we are divided, she said.
“Share the divine love in all of us with those who are healing,” Lawson said. “Let us bring that light of love to one another.”
The gathering was coordinated by Lawson and other members of the Elon Jewish Life Team who earlier in the day sent out a message to the campus community encouraging them to look to one another for courage and support.
“This is the way we shall overcome. This is the way we will strengthen the bonds of shared, diverse, vibrant, pluralistic, mutually-respecting, interconnected society. This is how we will build an olam hesed, a world of love (Psalm 89:3),” the team wrote in their message to the campus community.