The Rev. Joseph Lowery and about 50 others held a vigil today for the safe return of nearly 300 girls abducted from their school in Nigeria.
During a ceremony at Central United Methodist Church near the Georgia Dome, Lowery and others called on an Islamic terror group to free the girls and on governments in Africa and the west to help.
“Lord, we do not know where they are. But you know where they are,” Lowery said in a prayer for determination to find the children.
“These girls belong to us. They are our children,” Lowery said. “We have to do all we can to bring them home.”
The Islamist militant group Boko Haram still holds hostage more than 270 schoolgirls it abducted in Nigeria last month, according to the Associated Press.
The organization also is suspected in attacks in recent days in another Nigerian village that killed 40 and an assault in Cameroon against a Chinese engineering camp, the AP reported.
On Saturday, the leaders of five African nations and France held a summit in Paris to try to develop a plan to contend with the terrorist organization and to free the kidnapped girls.
Twitter activism has sprung up around #BringBackOurGirls, with celebrities, politicians and concerned citizens trying to raise awareness and pressure Nigerian leaders into action.
The Rev. Yvette Massey, the pastor at Central, prayed for the girls’ safety and also that the hearts of their captors would be changed. She also prayed for the girls’ parents.
“We pray, oh God, that they will continue to fight, that they will continue to struggle, that they will continue to demand that justice be done (for their daughters),” Massey said.
The service was organized by groups including the Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights, Central, Spelman College Social Justice Program and Agnes Scott College.
The service concluded with the release of more than 200 green and white balloons to signify the missing girls and the colors of Nigeria.
“I thank God that the whole world is roused and we will not rest until every girl that’s still alive comes home,” Lowery said.
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