The family and friends of the 26 people killed a year ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, held a candlelight vigil Thursday night in Washington.

The site was the National Cathedral (see photo gallery above), and it held about 800 visitors, many of whom support stronger gun-control laws, especially in light of what happened a year earlier. But the event itself was largely apolitical. Carole King sang a hymn. John Lennon's 'Imagine' was played.

Reverend Matthew Crebbin of Newtown Congregational Church spoke:

Even though the shadows of despair press upon so many, let us pray for grace to appear in the dark of the night of fear and apathy. A light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. Let us become light for one another, for all the world to see.

The vigil was not solely dedicated to the Newtown victims, but to the broader group comprising families and loved ones of the victims of gun violence in America. Speakers and attendees included the father of a boy shot at the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012; the brother of a man shot at the Empire State Building in 1997; and the mother of a 16-year-old girl killed on the street in Washington in 2010.

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