Prayer vigil in South Bend calls for an end to violence

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Nearly a week after the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, South Bend group prayed for healing.

The Red Cross Kroc Center had a room full of prayers after a week full of heartbreak.

“We are broken. Our society is broken. There is a lot of things that we’ve done to contribute to that break, but there are things we can do to bring healing,” attendee Leroy King said.

Leroy King and these other visitors met at the Kroc center Friday night to pray for the victims of Sunday’s massacre.

“We really have to address the splintering, the hate, the violence that is in our community, and the only way we can do that is if we can come together and truly just love our community and put down our differences,” King said.

That’s the idea behind community activist Lynn Coleman’s slogan, ‘let’s turn it around.’

“After we’d seen the devastation that happened in Texas last week, we felt compelled to say something. So we wanted to call local ministers together from all walks of life in our community and ask them to stand with us in prayer,” Coleman said.

The prayer leaders ranged from Catholic to Protestant to Muslim to Jewish,  going along with the theme of celebrating differences not division.

“Love conquers all. You don’t hurt that that you love,” Coleman said.

Coleman, the organizer of the event, says ‘let’s turn it around,’ is a message he had tried spread in the past, but it fizzled out.

However, he says now is the time to bring it back.

“It made sense to do. Somebody has to stand and say that what happened in Texas is wrong, and if we don’t stand and say it’s wrong, that means that we’re condoning it,” Coleman said.

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