RED BANK – People came to show they cared.
It was the better part of 200 who gathered Wednesday evening, first at Pilgrim Baptist Church, 172 Shrewsbury Avenue, from different faiths and different communities. They joined in an expression of hope in response to the horrific killings of nine people last week at an historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and more locally, the death of Tamara Seidle in Asbury Park, allegedly by the hand of her ex- husband, Neptune Township Police Sergeant Philip Seidle.
They marched to the small pocket park at the Shrewsbury Avenue/Drs. James Parker Boulevard intersection where they prayed, they lit each other’s candles and sang as a show of unity.
Donna Kolowski, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Lincroft, said she came “because I was walking around crying” and “I just needed to be with other people and feel something.”
“The only thing that vanquishes darkness is light,” said the Rev. Terrence K. Porter, Pilgrim Baptist’s pastor. And by attending this evening, he said, “Tonight we’re helping our community to heal and to move forward together.” Mayor Pasquale Menna called the evening a “wonderful show of unity.”
And with the hundreds of candles lit, the Rev. Jessica Naulty, pastor of the Red Bank United Methodist Church asked that “Let not this light go out.”
Earlier this week, from the pulpit to the pews, including the heads of civil rights groups, the talk has been about the massacre last week in the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“I was shocked and saddened,” hearing the news reports about the horrific crime, said Crystal Harris, as she left Sunday’s service at the Shrewsbury Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) Zion Church. “I just pray for the families,” she offered as she made her way to her car parked on Drs. James Parker Boulevard.
The Rev. Zaniel T. Young, the 30-year-old pastor of the Shrewsbury Avenue church, before the service offered his perspective as a clergy member and as a former South Carolina resident.
“I was extremely over-whelmed,” when news reports first came in about the June 17 fatal shooting in the historically important black church, not long after his church had finished its Bible study class, Young said. “It could have been anyone of our churches.”
Authorities said 21-year-old White Supremist Dylann Roof, entered the Morris Brown A.M.E. Church, participated in the church’s Bible study class and allegedly opened fire killing nine church members. Among the victims was the church’s pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, who was a prominent state senator.
Authorities are alleging Roof, who has been seen in many images waving the Confederate flag and pontificating anti-black rhetoric, was motivated by racial hatred to commit the mass murder.
Young said, while originally from New Jersey, their grandmother in Columbia, South Carolina, raised him and a sister in a community not far from the Charleston. “I have a lot of friends that were affected by this tragedy,” which motivated him to travel to Charleston, South Carolina, for a few days after the event, he said.
There he found people expressing “The same message as around the country,” Young said, a message of sorrow but also willing to forgive. “But in a more personalized context.”
The fact that the killings were committed in a church seemed to be particularly unnerving, as people talked about it. “That’s sacred ground,” said Lorenzo Dangler, president of the Long Branch branch of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “That is the last place on Earth you would think you would not be safe.”
“Church security and the security of our parishioners are increasingly more important now more than ever,” Young said. However, as “It is really the place you seek solace,” church security is difficult while keeping it welcoming, the pastor acknowledged.
Young, though, along with members of the church’s board of trustees are planning to meet with Police Chief Darren McConnell in the near future to discuss possible security measures that can be taken.
How do you prevent such tragedies? “Is it gun control? Tighter control of guns?” Dangler wondered. “I just don’t know.
“But I do know this,” Dangler continued, “even though they were black lives that were lost, this is an issue where everyone needs to come together and speak out against hatred and to speak for doing the right thing.”
“We have to do more bonding,” advised Adrienne Sanders, president of the Asbury Park/Neptune NAACP branch. “We can’t let this divide us. We’re not going to accept this behavior. “We all have the right to exist,” Sanders stressed.
By John Burton
