Community prayer vigil organized
With the support of her church, a Uniontown woman is organizing a community prayer vigil at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27 in the auditorium of Uniontown Area Senior High School in the hopes of starting an anti-violence movement.
“The emphasis is to bring everybody together for prayer for the victims of violence, the community, the youths,” said Gabriela Locke, who is a member of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Uniontown. “I’m starting off with this to get people involved and to bring the community together.”
Locke said she has support from St. Paul Church as well as her pastor, the Rev. Alfred Thompson, and other pastors in town.
“I’m hoping to get the community and more churches involved,” she said.
Locke decided to become involved after learning about a man who was killed in the city on Mother’s Day.
“It tugged at my heart. He had younger kids and I have a child. God put it on my heart. It was something I needed to do,” she said. “My first idea was to get out of Uniontown but God said no, you’re not going anywhere. You have work to do.”
The prayer vigil is the first step. Locke hopes an anti-violence movement will grow out of this.