The Westport Friends Meeting will hold a vigil this Sunday, Jan. 23 to stand together against intolerance and hate, following the recent theft of seven "Black Lives Matters" flags from the meeting house at 938 Main Road.

"Hate has no place in Westport," said the Friends' outreach clerk Susan Czernicka, is a chance for people across the south coast "to stand with us in the spirit of tolerance, generosity and kindness."

The vigil starts at 4 p.m.

It was called following a series of thefts at the meeting house, from August through November of last year. Since late summer, seven Black Lives Matters banners that had been hung between two trees on the property were stolen, in several instances removed just a day or two after being hung.

In late November, the Friends decided to stop hanging any more of them, and instead installed a large, permanent 'Black Lives Matter' sign on the property.

Friends said the original goal in hanging the banners "was to be a public ally with the Black Lives Matter Movement."

The Friends, they wrote, are "spiritually committed to BLM and witnessing against other forms of prejudice, in the believe that hate is here in Westport and other communities nearby."