BuzzFeed News correspondents report from Dallas churches where people gathered Sunday to mourn and give one another strength following Thursday’s deadly rampage that killed five police officers.
The city of Dallas has sought strength in religion in the wake of the sniper attack that killed five officers and wounded seven others, as well as two civilians.
Elizabeth Holmes, 87, dances in the aisle as she prays at the Potter's House church during Sunday service.
Carlo Allegri / Reuters
Miller Cunningham wasn’t scheduled to take the pulpit at this more than 10,000-member congregation in the northern suburbs of Dallas. But, “I need to go off-script,” he told a crowded sanctuary at a late morning service.
It was just over 48 hours since the city of Dallas had come under siege, when a rogue gunman had killed 5 police officers and wounded seven more at an otherwise peaceful protest Thursday night. In a sanctuary where the hymns are usually projected on large screens, Cunningham went back to basics.
Grab whoever is sitting next to you, he said, and pray.
For five minutes, members huddled with each other, grasping hands and whispering. Murmured prayers and pleas rose softly to the top of the buttressed sanctuary. “Love one another, as I have loved you,” the inscription on one of the wooden beams commanded.
They prayed for the families of the five slain officers: Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, and Michael Krol.
They prayed for the family of Micah Xavier Johnson, the man who shot them.
They prayed for the families of Philando Castille and Alton Sterling, the two black men killed by police officers last week whose deaths thousands gathered downtown to protest Thursday night, and whose deaths Johnson claimed to be avenging in his rampage.
And they prayed for Dallas, that a city that has come so far wouldn’t turn back.
The sanctuary was mostly white, a fact that wasn't lost on the attendees. It is a known problem, one churchgoer told BuzzFeed after the service. She said Park Cities has been partnering with black churches in the community to swap pastors and send choirs to one another's services. "Sundays have always been the most segregated days," she said.
“We’ve still got a long way to go. But we’re really trying to fix that. "— Ali Watkins
A Dallas police officer bows her head at the Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. church during Sunday service.
Carlo Allegri / Reuters
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