{"id":303624,"date":"2026-06-11T07:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303624\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T07:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:07:18","slug":"central-florida-cathedral-observes-pulse-nightclub-shootings-10th-anniversary-with-requiem-service-episcopal-news-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303624\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Florida cathedral observes Pulse nightclub shooting\u2019s 10th anniversary with requiem service \u2013 Episcopal News Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cathedral<\/a><\/p>\n

Demonstrators show their support outside the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida, during the June 18, 2016, funeral service for Christopher Andrew Leinonen, one of the victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. Photo: John Raoux\/AP<\/p>\n

[Episcopal News Service]\u00a0The Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida,\u00a0memorialized<\/a>\u00a0the 49 people who were shot and killed nearly 10 years ago \u2013 June 12, 2016 \u2013\u00a0at Pulse, a nearby gay nightclub, today with a public livestreamed\u00a0Votive Requiem Mass<\/a>. The congregation prayed for healing, peace and hope as the victims\u2019 names were read aloud.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dan Smith, the\u00a0Diocese of Central Florida<\/a>\u2019s canon to the ordinary, preached. He called for the need to respect the\u00a0dignity of every human being<\/a>\u00a0and to practically and prayerfully seek peace and justice.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The LGBTQ+ and Latino communities] 10 years ago, and unfortunately still today, experience discrimination, hatred, fear and violence,\u201d Smith said in his sermon. \u201cI think of those four words: discrimination, hatred, fear, violence. They are antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the vows that each and every one of us take at our baptism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rev. Garrett Puccetti, resident priest of the cathedral and the service\u2019s planner and celebrant, told Episcopal News Service ahead of the service that the cathedral wanted to honor the victims, survivors, loved ones, first responders and everyone else affected by the shooting because \u201cthe Christian response to violence and hatred is love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Christ first loved us and because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, we, as the cathedral, decided that we needed to continue the same ministry we offered right after the Pulse shooting happened,\u201d Puccetti said.<\/p>\n

The service also included readings from Isaiah 25:6-9, Psalm 130, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and John 11:21-27.<\/p>\n

On the morning of the shooting, the Rev. Nancy Oliver, then a deacon at the cathedral, woke up shortly after 5 a.m. to prepare for a full day of Sunday worship services. While getting ready, she turned on the TV. That\u2019s when she learned about the shooting and that Orlando police had just fatally shot the killer.<\/p>\n

At 7 a.m., Oliver arrived at the cathedral with no intent to stay for worship. Instead, she spent the next 15 hours distributing bottled water and food, leading impromptu prayer circles and listening to people vent outside Orlando Regional Medical Center and at a nearby hotel where hundreds of people waited to hear from their loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a terrible time for everyone. It was very intense,\u201d she told ENS. \u201cWhile I was leading one of the prayer circles and everyone bowed heads together, I looked down, and I saw rivulets of blood all over this young girl\u2019s boots from when she was inside Pulse. It was unreal. I\u2019ll never get that image out of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was rector of\u00a0Holy Cross Episcopal Church<\/a> in Sanford, a north Orlando suburb, in 2016. Like Oliver, Smith learned about the shooting at Pulse that morning on television. He scrapped the sermon he had prepared and instead addressed the congregation with some handwritten notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got up in the pulpit and just preached what was on my mind. It\u2019s horrifying to think that the second-largest mass shooting in the history of the United States happened right here in the city that we love so much,\u201d Smith told ENS. \u201cThe congregation and I dove headlong into the grief and the shock and the horror of this hate crime against the\u00a0gay<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Latino<\/a>\u00a0communities \u2013 two communities who are already pushed to the edge and discriminated against as is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pulse<\/a><\/p>\n

A makeshift memorial outside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, honored the victims and survivors of a mass shooting that occurred there on June 12, 2016, two days before this photo was taken. Photo: Shireen Korkzan\/ENS<\/p>\n

The Pulse nightclub shooting, which also left 58 people injured, was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history until one year later, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd gathered on the Las Vegas Strip in\u00a02017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the nightclub victims were Latino because Pulse was hosting \u201cLatin Night\u201d when the shooting occurred.<\/p>\n

The funeral of one of the victims,\u00a0Christopher Andrew Leinonen<\/a>, was held at the cathedral. Members of Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBTQ+ congregation, attempted to picket Leinonen\u2019s funeral, but 200 counterprotesters formed a human chain to\u00a0block<\/a>\u00a0their view of the cathedral.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was emotional seeing so many people go out of their way to shield funeral-goers from seeing that\u00a0hate group<\/a>,\u201d said Oliver, who now serves at\u00a0St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church<\/a>\u00a0in nearby Cocoa Beach.<\/p>\n

Greater Orlando is one of Florida\u2019s more socially progressive metropolitan areas, but Central Florida is historically one of the most\u00a0theologically conservative<\/a>\u00a0dioceses in The Episcopal Church.\u00a0But, according to Smith, news of the Pulse shooting \u201caffected everyone in the diocese.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCentral Florida is still one of the most conservative dioceses, but, to me, that makes it even more incumbent for us to pay attention to the anniversary of this act of violence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The June 10 service concluded with the cathedral\u2019s bells tolling 49 times \u2013 one ring for each victim.<\/p>\n

During his sermon, Smith told the congregation to reflect on how they will respond to future hatred and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question that I want you to ponder this day is, where will you be?\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhere will you be when hatred is spewed? Where will you be when someone is pushed to the edge of our society or pushed out completely? Where will you be when violence raises its ugly head, as it undoubtedly will? Will we live into and up to the promise we make at our baptism, to share the hope of the gospel, to respect the dignity of all people and to seek, always, justice and peace?\u201d<\/p>\n

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demonstrators show their support outside the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida, during the June 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-303624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}