The pain of a tragic shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. was felt in Selma Friday, as members of the faith community came together at Brown Chapel AME Church for a prayer vigil.

Churches throughout the community were represented, as pastor Leodis Strong opened the doors of the historic church to pray and sing together.

The prayer vigil was organized after members of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Selma and Dallas County contacted Strong about hosting a vigil.

“We want to show people that even though this happened somewhere else, we want to come together as one big church family,” said the Rev. Gregory Williams, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Selma and Dallas County. “Even though we’re different denominations, we’re all still serving one God, so when one of us is hurting, all of us are hurting.”

As the vigil started, Williams prayed for the nine people who lost their lives, their loved ones and the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Dylann Roof.

“This could have been any church in Selma or anywhere, and we are asking God to strengthen this family and those who lost loved ones,” Williams said. “We’re also asking God to pray for [Dylan Roof] and his family as well.”

Williams opened the floor for anyone to pray, which led to community leaders like Sen. Hank Sanders, Judge Robert Armstrong and Councilwoman Susan Keith taking a moment.

“We release this church, these victims and the people of Charleston and to all who are hurting from this horrible tragedy,” Armstrong prayed. “We release all the grace, all of the mercy, all of the peace, all of the comfort and all of the healing … that each one needs.”

Many others did the same, sending prayers to Charleston to all of the people affected by the tragedy.

The Rev. Otis Dion Culliver of Tabernacle Baptist Church closed the vigil, as everyone in attendance joined hands. Culliver prayed that people not let the shooting divide people.

Culliver said the shooting hits home because people are supposed to feel safe in a house of praise and worship.

“It reminds us that any sense of security that we may think we have is ultimately an illusion, and as pastors and leaders, we must, in my opinion, become proactive when it comes to security of worshippers,” Culliver said.

“I’m not saying anything that happened there could have been prevented, but I think that there is no sense in us being naïve to these things occurring. Every pastor as well as their congregation and board of leaders should at least have a conversation of security measures in their church.”

Pastor Strong, who has worshipped at Emanuel and knows members and former pastors, said he was truly thankful for all of the people that came together for the vigil.

“It is hard to put into words. It’s compassion, it’s caring, it’s sharing the experience at a level of understanding that helps to mitigate some of the grief,” Strong said. “It helps to lighten the load.”

Strong said he hopes people can take a tragic incident like this and learn from it by having open discussions on the racial divide.

“The bigger work for all of us to do is to be agents and ambassadors to others to share with them where we really are,” Strong said. “I think we can begin to influence and impact others to come closer to where we are rather than going closer to where this young man was.”