During Holy Week, This Church Is Honoring Children Lost To Gun Violence

A New York City church is marking Holy Week with an outdoor installation that honors children killed by guns in the United States since last Easter.

The front yard of St. Marks in the Bowery features about 70 crosses draped in T-shirts bearing the children's names and ages. All the children represented are under 12.

"We wanted to commemorate something that sort of parallels what happened to Jesus during the last days of his life," Rev. Winnie Varghese told The Huffington Post.

The episcopal church, located a few blocks from the site of the explosion that killed two and injured 22 last week in Manhattan's East Village, had a display last year that focused on New Yorkers who died by gunfire.

"We think that gun violence is epidemic," Varghese told HuffPost. "We would like to raise awareness."

A sign at the gate of the latest installation cites church-gathered statistics counting hundreds who have been injured or killed by guns in the last year. (Only those who died are represented with T-shirts.)

In a blog post for HuffPost, Varghese encourages people to consider the toll guns are taking on society.

"The question for us is whether these 700 injuries and deaths are acceptable, the unavoidable cost of the right to bear arms, or if they are an unacceptable sacrifice to an industry that is trying to convince us that a sacrifice acceptable for the 2nd amendment is our children," she writes.

"Remember Ana, Amiracle, Andrew, Sania, Nathan, Keytrell, Anthony, Alanna, Hayden, Thomas, Kamarri, Hunter, DeCorrin, Geonna, Daylen, Jase, Samuel, Caroline, Franklin, Paxton..."