ATLANTA — The shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, over the past week have taken center stage in churches across metro Atlanta.
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Channel 2's Nicole Carr sat in on an open mic and prayer vigil Sunday morning at the First Congregational Church in downtown Atlanta, where church members and visitors talked through their concerns and prayed ahead of their normal Sunday service.%
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This is a critical point in American history,” pastor Gerald Durley said.
After all the media coverage and the protests in Atlanta and beyond, Durley said the church offered a peaceful space to talk.
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"We just want to be in this moment of tremendous grieving and a sense of loss and bewilderment," pastor Dwight Andrews said.
An open mic session offered the chance to talk about the conversation that is consuming America right now.
“I tell them all, ‘Be angry. Be outraged. But let's channel that anger,’" Durley said.
Durley joined young people in the Atlanta marches that have taken place in response to officer-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the ambush of police officers in Dallas.
He says his generation offers this much: “Organize, strategize and then we mobilize.”
“Just like Black Lives Matter and the struggles they have with some of us older folks, we had those same problems when I was a young man dealing with the older folks. Dubois had the same problem with younger folks that were fighting in the New Negro Movement,” Andrews said.
At one point a young boy stood up and asked why there's pushback against the police when they're only trying to help.
He was offered an explanation about what one congregant called "a few bad apples" and an overall desire for a nonviolent response.
"I think that all of us, (our) jobs and responsibility should be to do what we can in order to break this madness," open mic attendant Michael Varzi said.
The church went on to open the sanctuary to their normal morning service where the sermon focused around finding time to be still and reflective in a time of chaos.