LGBTQ Pastor Marcus Payne II and the congregation of Lighthouse Church of Chicago are holding nights of prayer, hoping for the safe return of Taylor Casey to Chicago, Illinois.
“Our community is broken and distraught right now during this time,” Payne said at a press conference in Chicago, in honor of Taylor’s birthday. Payne, Taylor’s family and friends pleaded for the government’s assistance in finding the 42-year-old last seen in the Bahamas.
“She is a vital heartbeat, the heart pulse of our people.”
Taylor, a transgender woman, visited the Bahamas for a four-week yoga training course at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Center on Paradise Island. She was last seen on June 19. Now Bahamian investigators are trying to piece together the puzzle of her mysterious disappearance.
Her phone found roughly 56 feet below water could not be accessed by investigators and her US passport has not been found, police said.
Taylor’s mother, Collette Seymour has called for assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and, she is now pressuring US elected officials to do more to find her child who celebrated her 42nd birthday on Thursday.
Taylor served actively in her church where she was on the hospitality team and “regularly participated in monthly meals [and] community conversations throughout the week.”
Lighthouse Church of Chicago is an LGBTQ-affirming church, whose mission Payne said is to be passionate about social justice and the gospel of Jesus Christ, “through, empowerment, entertainment and education.”
“Taylor’s fashion sense, her sense of curiosity towards the world, how she saw the world as beautiful and saw God through it, is something our community is all right now, missing deeply and truly,” Payne said.
The church has organized prayer calls for Taylor and is sharing updates on social media.
He urged elected officials to help find Taylor. “Government needs to move urgently.”