Silence protects violence. Community can interrupt it. Faith can help us name it. And remembrance ensures that those we have lost are not forgotten.

This October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we invite our church and wider community to an evening of truth-telling, awareness, healing, and hope.

The evening will feature a screening of the award-winning documentary Women of Faith: Coping with Trauma, by filmmaker Angela Terrell, exploring the powerful and often complicated intersection of faith and trauma.

Following the film, we will gather for a brief facilitated conversation and share resources for those experiencing domestic violence, survivors, families, friends, faith communities, and those who simply want to know how to help.

Then, we will move from conversation to remembrance.

The evening will conclude with a Candlelight Vigil for Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence. Together, we will pray, keep silence, speak the names of those whose lives have been taken by domestic violence, honor survivors, and recommit ourselves to becoming a community where abuse is neither hidden nor excused.

We gather for those who survived.
We remember those who did not.
We stand with those still finding their way out.
And we refuse to let silence have the final word.

Come to listen.
Come to learn.
Come to remember.
Come to stand with survivors.