FARMINGTON — Old South Church will hold a candlelight vigil at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to honor the victims of the mass shooting at a gay night club in Orlando, Fla., the Rev. Alexis Fuller-Wright said Tuesday.

The public is invited.

The vigil will take place in the main sanctuary of the church at 235 Main St. It will open at noon for silent prayer and reflection.

“We will be reading the names of the 50 people who were killed and lighting a candle for each of them,” she said. “We will also open a space for people to share their prayers, reflections, poems, songs, readings — melancholy or stubbornly joyous, grieving or hopeful.”

Fifty people, including the shooter, were killed when 29-year-old Omar Mateen opened fire inside a gay night club around 2 a.m. Sunday. Over 50 others were wounded in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

“For many people, a sense of sanctuary has been shattered,” said Fuller-Wright. “It’s important to not only proclaim that these lives mattered, but to bear witness to the violence that has been done to the LGBTQ community.”

It feels particularly important to me that it happen in a church, because for so long the church has been complicit in demonizing the LGBTQ community. We must be the first to proclaim the humanity, worth and dignity of those who were so senselessly murdered,” she said.