Church group remembers lives lost in police-related violence
WOONSOCKET – The All Nations of God in Christ Church at 531 Fairmount St. looked to the power of God in overcoming adversity on Sunday with a special outdoor Father’s Day service remembering George Floyd and many other African-American lives lost to injustice.
While hosted by the small All Nations congregation and organized by church Elder Otis Vance and his fellow congregation members, the service also drew several pastors of other Christian congregations in Rhode Island who brought messages of hope through faith to about a dozen people gathered on the church lawn.
Like other gatherings held around the country remembering George Floyd’s death while in custody of police in Minneapolis, the All Nations of God service included two 8 minute and 46 second periods of taking a knee by those in attendance. One observance remembered a list of men dying in incidents of violence and the other a list of women, names read off by members of the congregation and the visiting clergy.
Vance, an elder an assistant pastor All Nations, said the service was
at to show “our support for the deaths that we believe were the unnecessary deaths of our people.’’
The 8 minutes and 46 second observances were for the time that Floyd was restrained by the police, during which he died.
From his view, Vance said he believes that the positive thing coming from Floyd’s death is the attention to police violence occurring in its aftermath.