NEW YORK (RNS) — On a recent Monday evening as commuters hurried past, a group of faith leaders set out a microphone and battery-run candles at the Columbus Circle entrance of Central Park in Manhattan for their weekly prayer vigil and held up a worn-out banner reading “Multifaith Monday: Witness for Democracy.”
Within minutes, nearly 30 people had assembled, greeting one another as organizers handed out signs with slogans such as “Justice Matters” and “Witness to Democracy.” The Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, senior minister at New York’s historic Middle Collegiate Church, kicked off the night’s service by declaring, in her clarion voice, “This fascist administration is wreaking havoc on freedoms left and right.”
Though surrounded by the sounds of the city, the vigils’ organizers aim to re-create the atmosphere of a sanctuary. Music, sung a cappella save for a drum and guitar accompaniment, consists of songs clergy have sung in Minneapolis while protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On a recent Monday, attendees chanted Minneapolis worship director Katie Eckeberger‘s anthem: “We are many, we are one. We won’t stop fighting until ICE is gone. We won’t stop until love has won.”
Hundreds of religious activists have taken part in Multifaith Mondays since the vigils began in March 2025, answering what they see as the Trump administration’s overtaking of democracy with spiritually cente …