"Everyone is grieving and everyone needs to find solace when something like this happens," said Eileen Murphy of All Saints, as more than 60 gathered for an interfaith service mourning the 49 people killed in a mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando over the weekend.
"We felt that we needed a way for the people in our church to come together and mourn."
Prayers were offered by representatives from the Community Church of Glen Rock, the Glen Rock Jewish Center, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, the Hindus of Glen Rock and Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sikh Gurudwara.
"May God give [the victims' families] the strength to mend their broken hearts," said Pastor Terry O'Brien of the Community Church.
Imam Moutaz Charaf of the El-Zahara Islamic Center of Midland Park called on everyone to "live with each other in peace and harmony."
"Help us all stand together in solidarity against discrimination, racism, hatred and violence," he said.
The name of each victim was read aloud and a bell was sounded.
The vigil ended with the singing of "America The Beautiful."
"Here in Glen Rock we are really blessed with a group of religious communities that works sort of in advance of hard times and times of conflict to practice tolerance and to recognize and respect all of our traditions," said Fr. Mark Collins of All Saints. "We're used to getting together when bad things happen to call upon our many faiths to stand together against some of the bad things of the world."
"We're all humans," Murphy said. "We may be practicing different religious, but we're all grieving."
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