AMHERST — A remembrance ceremony to honor and grieve lives taken by COVID and to recognize others affected by the pandemic is being held on the Town Common Sunday afternoon.

The COVID Remembrance Interfaith gathering, organized by the Interfaith Opportunities Network, scheduled for 2 p.m. on the green, will be moved indoors to Grace Episcopal Church in case of inclement weather.

The church’s bells will ring to begin the event, which focuses on the illness that has claimed 8 million lives worldwide, including 1 million in the United States, with a disproportionate toll on the elderly, poor, people of color, and health care workers and those unable to work from home.

Pastor Mary Smith Gomes of Goodwin Memorial AME Zion Church will be among those leading prayers, readings and reflections, noting her own case of COVID.

“We want others to know that they are not alone with their pain and losses from COVID and that there are many others with empathy for them,” Gomes said.

Ruth Love Barer of the Jewish Community of Amherst, Omar Abdelaal of Hampshire Mosque and the Rev. Meghan McDermott of Grace Church will be among presenters.

Those attending are encouraged to bring the names of people and things they have lost during the pandemic. There will also be an opportunity to place names in a bowl.

The Rev. Jeffrey Schultz of Immanuel Lutheran Church will lead a litany written by Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener of Temple Israel Greenfield, in which those gathered can affirm those lost will be remembered.

Songs will be offered by the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, Journey Home hospice choir, Healing Circle singers led by Helen Fortier and Dorothy Cresswell, and the Hopping Tree Sangha, led by Josh Arond. Rep. Mindy Domb will describe efforts of the state Legislature to create a remembrance day, and the Town Council’s recent resolution on COVID remembrance, on the first Monday of each March, will be read.

Others speaking will be Peter Blood, a member of the Mount Toby Friends Meeting in Leverett, Jennifer Ritz Sullivan of Marked By COVID, Kathleen Anderson of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, and Katie Tolles of First Church Amherst.

Should the event move indoors, masks will be required.

Community safety listening session

The Community Safety & Social Justice Committee is holding a community listening session Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Town Room at Town Hall.

A focus will be on the town’s Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service program that launched last summer.

People can join online or by phone at 669-900-6833 or 689-278-1000. Webinar ID: 833 9482 5481.

For child care and translation services, call 259-0360.

The Big Payback

A screening of “The Big Payback: Fear and Reparations in the American Suburb” takes place March 30 at 6 p.m. at The Powerhouse at Amherst College.

The documentary screening is a partnership between the African Heritage Reparation Assembly and the Amherst Association of Students. Robin Rue Simmons, the former Evanston, Illinois alderwoman who spearheaded the reparations initiative in that city, will be part of the panel, along with Mike Jirik, a research fellow studying the racial history of the college.

Spring arts block party

A planned spring block party focused on the arts, originally scheduled for May, will be pushed back to 2024.

The Amherst Cultural Council recently agreed with the Amherst Business Improvement District that time is too short to get the event organized.

“It’s time for people to get back together, in person and collaborate and have culture, but we just can’t force this,” said Julianne Applegate, who co-chairs the council that was putting money toward the project. Money to support the event was also coming to the Amherst Center Cultural District.

A component of the annual block party in September may serve as a kickoff to next spring’s event.

Merry Maple plaque

A plaque honoring the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band’s participation in the town’s Merry Maple celebration, featuring a piece of the tree that was removed from the Town Common last fall, is being displayed at the George N. Parks Minuteman Marching Building.

The current band members recently received and posed for photos with a Merry Maple tree round, provided by Tree Warden Alan Snow, that is mounted to a plaque.

An inscription states: “The original town of Amherst Merry Maple Tree. Chopped down 2022. The UMMB has performed at every Merry Maple since 1978.”

Meetings

MONDAY: Town Council, 6:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Board of Assessors, 9:30 a.m., and Energy and Climate Action Committee, 4:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: Historical Commission, 6:35 p.m., demolition delay requests for homes at 126, 140 and 148 South East St.

]]>