By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The crowd at Palmer Square listened in respectful silence Thursday as Mary Sherlach’s name was read first, followed by Anne Marie Murphy’s name.
The name of every victim of the Connecticut school massacre was read during an interfaith candlelight vigil to remember the victims as well as their families.
”We gather in unity standing in solidarity with all who grieve,” said the Rev. David Davis, pastor of Nassau Presbyterian Church, from the steps leading to the Nassau Inn.
The event, coming less than a week after the tragedy, was sponsored by the Princeton Clergy Association, the Princeton University Office of Religious Life, Fellowship in Prayer, the Coalition for Peace Action and the Nassau Inn.
The crowd, estimated at 250 people, represented mix of faces young and old who stood in the cold to sing, pray, and hear words of encouragement. During the vigil, Rev. Davis prayed for the protection of teachers and for classrooms to be “safe and free of hatred.”
”And we stand in solidarity in our own community for those who are at risk and teachers,” he said. “We gather to surround the teachers tonight as well and all of our students in classrooms. And we gather in hope, claiming a hope that by God’s grace and the will and the determination of God’s people that our communities can be safer and that our classrooms will be at peace until that day when the world is a better picture of what God intends it to be. “
Later, Princeton University senior Abdulrahman Mahmoud read a passage from the Koran, first in Arabaic and then in English.
Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Christian clergy addressed the crowd seeking to offer words of encouragement.
”There’s also something tonight about all of us standing here holding candles. In the time of cold, we hold the light. In a time of darkness, we provide a light,” said Rabbi Adam Feldman of the Jewish Center on Nassau Street.
”There were so much darkness in Connecticut, in Newtown,” he continued, “but there are also incredible examples of light, incredible examples of heroism —people that risked their own lives to save the lives of others, that in the midst of all that tragedy they found a way to have hope and light.”
The Rev. Bob Moore, executive director of the Coalition for Peace Action, said the country needs to unite to make schools and communities safer. “Things do not have to keep being this way,” he said.
Toward the end of the service, the names of the six adults and 20 children were read aloud, with the two readers using only the children’s first names. The list of victims did not include Nancy Lanza, the mother of shooter Adam Lanza and first person he killed before driving to the school.
The Rev. Davis said that was done in following what President Barack Obama had done in not mentioning Ms. Lanza when he read the names at a vigil for the victims.

