‘Vigil for Unity’: Thousands gather at UVU to seek peace following Charlie Kirk slaying

On an Orem campus still reeling from last week’s slaying of Charlie Kirk, thousands gathered Friday to grieve together — and, collectively, begin healing.

Utah Valley University officials, students and folks of all ages and backgrounds from across the United States assembled at the school’s UCCU Center for a “Vigil for Unity” in memory of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed during a campus event on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

Kirk, 31, a married father of two, was killed by a single bullet during a “Prove Me Wrong” event, in front of 3,000 students and spectators.

The speakers at Friday’s vigil included religious and campus leaders — along with musical performances, a video tribute and a hope-filled readings from sacred scripture.

The hour-long gathering ended with all in attendance standing and raising flameless candles, illuminating the darkened campus venue.

“For Charlie!”, one man from the crowd shouted.

His call was repeated, again and again, as the vigil came to its close.

A school president’s witness to campus goodness & mercy

UVU President Astrid Tuminez thanked her “beloved community” for the kindness and service offered over the past nine days.

Given last week’s events on the campus grounds, she said, it is understandable to feel like the ancient psalmist who wondered if God had forsaken him.

“Shock, grief, abandonment, fear and hurt have filled our hearts since September 10,” said Tuminez. “A father and husband was killed on our campus. A wife and children were left bereft. And thousands in our own UVU family experienced trauma.”

The UVU president offered “deep condolences and prayers of peace” for Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, and the couple’s two young children.

She then spoke of her love for “the UVU family” and shared a few words of hope.

“My beloved UVU community, surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives,” said Tuminez. “I have seen goodness and mercy. Our community, though wounded, showed up to serve one another.

“We hugged each other. We offered trauma and mental health support. We restored belonging. Our law enforcement partners helped us feel safe again. Hundreds, if not thousands, offered prayers for peace, clarity and resilience.

“We listened and gave each other patience and grace.”

The UVU campus has again reopened. The students and their teachers and friends have returned.

“Our students described their return using words like ‘scared’, ‘violated’, ‘devastated’, and ‘sorrowful’.

“But at the same time they also said, ‘My dream of an education is still strong. We will get through it. My professors have supported me. I am thankful for my friends — most of whom I met here at UVU’.”

Tuminez ended her remarks with calls to action.

First, be grateful for broken hearts. “Our broken hearts soften us to connect with one another as humans, as citizens and residents of Utah and America, and as children of the divine.”

Second, in the coming weeks and months, “let us pause and slow down when anger rises in our hearts towards those we think might be our enemy. Let’s ask ourselves, ‘What do I have in common with them?’.”

And third: “I ask you to support UVU and be patient with us as we recover from this tragedy.

“We will help every student succeed. We will offer opportunities for skills-building in dialogue, peacemaking and hard conversations. We have a long and difficult road ahead, and we can only succeed if we unite.

“I am honored to be a part of this beloved community, and I urge each of us to remember that love can be stronger than fear.”

Elder Matthew S. Holland: UVU is a place of ‘fearless resolve’

Elder Matthew S. Holland, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holds a time-earned tender spot for UVU.

For nine years, he served as the school’s president. He and his wife, Paige and their children love UVU.

That love, he said at Friday’s vigil, “has never left our hearts, In fact, that love beats today as strong as ever.”

Last week’s campus shooting left wounds “seen and unseen” in every direction, said Elder Holland. First and foremost among its casualties were Charlie Kirk and his family. Additionally, this “lone act of violence” pierced hearts and minds everywhere.

“In response,” he added, “it’s natural and fitting for UVU to ask: ‘Can we possibly heal?’.”

“‘Can peace and agreement ever be found?’

“I’m only one voice, but the answer for me is, ‘Yes’,’ said Elder Holland.

“The first harbinger or signal of my hope for peace and unity is UVU itself. This remarkable institution was created to provide space for anybody who needed access to higher education in some form.

“Since then, this school has always opened its doors widely to students from any economic, political, religious, cultural and academic background in every phase of its development, and has — by vision, policies and practice — remained a place for all.”

Thus, he declared, UVU is uniquely built to survive such a tempestuous moment.

Elder Holland added he hopes that all in the UVU community will actively respond with compassion for all who are hurting.

“This is a time,” he said. “for shared burdens and collective healing.”

The “fearless resolve” being shown at UVU is evident in a world torn by much malice and division. “You are already the hands and hearts by which peace, rather than hate, will prevail on this campus,” he said.

Seek and discover hope

UVU student body president Kyle Cullimore acknowledged Friday that it’s hard to talk about peace at such a heavy moment on campus.

“I believe,” he said, “that peace begins with something simple yet so powerful: Hope.

“I don’t mean a shallow or surface-level kind of hope that ignores the reality and the tragedy that happened on our campus, or the kind that just tells us to move on.

“I mean the kind of hope that we can find only when we willingly search the very depths of our souls. The kind of hope that tells us that even though we’ve all been through something dark, we know the sun will rise again.”

At tragic moments such as the Kirk shooting, it’s tempting to seek isolation, point fingers at others and attach labels.

“We must stop putting labels on one another,” said Cullimore. “All these labels do is divide us and limit how we see one another. When we treat each other based on these labels, that divide continues to grow and grow and grow.

“It becomes easier to dehumanize each other because we don’t remember the basic truth that we are all humans endowed with inherent rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, peace.”

Before inviting all to join in the vigil candle lighting, Cullimore was joined on the UCCU Center stage by all his fellow Utah college student body presidents as a show of Beehive State unity.

Also speaking Friday was Juliana Boerio-Goates, a BYU professor emerita and a Catholic lay ecclesial minister.

Drawing on the words of scripture, she encouraged vigil attendees to “make conscious, intentional efforts to look for whatever is true, honorable, just, and gracious in those who have wounded us.”

Sow love and respond to injury with forgiveness.

Pain felt far beyond UVU’s Orem campus

The shock of Kirk’s murder has not been confined to UVU campus.

Preston Parsons, a current freshman at Texas Tech University, stood at Kirk’s makeshift memorial on the UVU campus, Friday.

“I needed to come and pay my respects,” he said. Parsons was in his dorm room in Texas working with his own Turning Point chapter, when he heard the news Kirk had been killed.

“I think that we need, more than anything right now, to feel a sense of community and unity,” he said.

The sidewalks surrounding UVU are colored with scriptures and messages of love to Kirk, his wife Erika and their two small children. His memorial on the grass in front of UVU is filled with American flags and flowers.

In neat, pink handwriting, leading up to the memorial are sprawled the words of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Matthew: “But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”

Another, in all caps, says, “Rest well, my great pal. We have your back and will take it from here.”

Elisa Demartin, a senior at UVU, stood near the edge of the memorial and told the Deseret News, “I’m sad and then angry, and he made such a big impact.”

“This is beautiful,” she said, looking at the memorial.

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