A large group gathered at the Altona Mennonite Church this week to honour those killed in Sunday's mosque attack in Quebec City. Pastor Dan Kehler joined forces with Altona United Church Minister Melanie Kauppila to host the prayer evening.

Kauppila says the deadly shooting hits close to home as the community has become close to many people with different backgrounds, in particular five newcomer Syrian families who are Muslim in faith. "When you know that their hearts are probably aching and worried and they hear that news story, it pulls at our heart strings and it pulls at many people's heart strings to realize that in Canada we have those whose hearts are so turned that in a place of prayer and in a place of peace, death should come."

And so Kauppila says she and Dan set up some chairs and candles and put on some music for the simple Wednesday evening service. "It was open to whoever was feeling grief and uncertainty at our world."

She adds members of the local Syrian families attended as well, with one of the men reading a passage from the Quran. That was followed by readings from the Psalms and Christian scriptures. "It felt like we had, for a brief moment in our small corner of the world, shone some light into the darkness and said 'It's not like that all over this world and there are many people that will stand with you, so you can take some of that fear away.' "

"...you sit down side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder...and we go into the night knowing that there are those who support us and have our back, grieve for us, laugh with us, share joy with us and trust each other with our own lives and we will rely on each other."

Kauppila notes things like sadness, grief and death are things we all experience and transcend the differences we may have.

"First and foremost, above all we are human beings that ache and that cry and we are called from across faith traditions to care for one another, it is common ground and a threshold for all faith traditions to be peaceful, to be loving, to be kind. And in a world that seems to be - for some of us - just spiralling and causing more questions, coming together to recognize our humanity and our common human bonds that when one person hurts and aches it pulls at all of our hearts."

Wednesday's prayer service saw about forty people attend.