Nineteen white crosses are grouped together on the west lawn of University Heights Baptist Church facing National. Each has a name and age of someone from Greene and Christian Counties who’s died in a gun-related homicide in the past year.
Two members of University Heights Baptist pounded the crosses into the ground Thursday morning. The display will stay up until December 21 – the day the church will host “The Longest Night: A Service of Remembrance” at 6 p.m. in the chapel.
Nolan Porter, senior pastor of UHB, said they’ll read the names of those on the crosses aloud, offer a chance for family members to stand up, and they’ll say nine or 10 different prayers for the city, "for peace, respect for life, for first responders, for peace and comfort, several different things, a short message, some worship as well. But mostly it's just about providing a space and a time for comfort for those that have died over the last year."
The service will end on the lawn by the crosses where the group will pray and sing a final time, and the families may take home the symbol of their loved one if they choose to do so.
The event started in 2023 – the idea of a church member who’d lost a daughter to gun violence years before and had seen other churches host similar events.
Porter explains why they chose to hold it on the longest night of the year.
"It's symbolism for the darkness that people are walking through," he said. "The darkness of their grief, the pain, the hurt that they're experiencing. And then also all of these folks are experiencing or fixing to experience their first Christmas without this loved one with them, and so it's very heavy."
Porter said it’s especially meaningful for some.
"What we find is that there are few that have a service, that have a funeral service, a memorial service," he said. "I don't know an exact percentage, but it seems like something like 20 to 30% actually have a service. And so for a lot of families, this is their memorial service."
“The Longest Night: A Service of Remembrance” will be held December 21 at 6 p.m. at University Heights Baptist Church.