WILTON — A thought, a word, a silent prayer was quietly shared as a small group of residents gathered Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil to remember those affected by violence.

Struggling with conflicting feelings about the holidays and news reports of violence around the world, Marylena Chaisson and Lisa Lindsay said they wanted to do something. 

“We organized the vigil but it is for the community,” Chaisson said, as a few members of four churches in Wilton gathered in the dark, cool night to light a candle and voice their feelings.

“We’re pleased to see those that came,” Lindsay said. “There’s only a few but that’s OK.”

It was not a time for political debate but a time to remember those affected by violence, the organizers suggested of the gathering in the Wilton United Methodist Church parking lot.

Reading a letter from a priest, Lindsay spoke of the senseless violence committed against people who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Light overcomes darkness, love overcomes hate,” she quoted from the letter.

The vigil was considerably smaller than the first one David Olson ever attended. There were thousands at Kent State when he was just 21, he said.

But, for Olson, Wilton is a place that has shown acceptance and openness to the many foreign students that he and his wife, Paula Widmer, have brought into their home through a student exchange program.  

Most were Muslims but people would turn out to hear about their native lands and to support their efforts to learn and for some, to start a new life.

“I’m proud to be a part of this community,” he said.

“We think of the people most recently from California but also those struggles between police and the general population,” the Rev. David Smith of Wilton United Church of Christ said. “We think about the Syrians who have left their homeland and now no one wants.” 

All religions are based on love and acceptance of your neighbor, Eileen Adams said. Our country is based on acceptance of people from all around the world, she suggested.

Participants repeatedly thanked Chaisson and Lindsay for organizing the event and requested another vigil be held.

There were few, but “Jesus did OK with 12 people,” Smith said.

The vigil ended by singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

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