Editorial: Praying for our city
By Judie Holcomb-Pack
On Good Friday, April 10, Mayor Allen Joines, along with clergy from many different faiths, joined together in an interdenominational hour of prayer for our city. It was live-streamed over the city’s YouTube channel and if you missed it, you can watch the video by clicking on the YouTube link on their website, www.cityofws.org.
Clergy and religious leaders from various faiths, including Christian, Jewish, Islam, Hindu, Zen Buddhist and Baha’i participated, asking for protection and blessings for every segment of our community: transportation, sanitation workers, EMTs and first responders, doctors and nurses, those caring for the sick, the homeless, the incarcerated, the mentally ill, teachers and students, our leaders, and all who are impacted by COVID-19. Some people may have heard an inspirational message from a person of faith different from their own. I know I did.
As the service continued, those who were watching online began to add their comments. There were many amens, many praises, and many thank-yous for Mayor Joines and all who participated in offering up prayers for our community. It was truly uplifting to see all those positive comments. It was like blessings raining down from heaven.
As I listened to the clergy from various faiths and watched the comments scroll past on my computer screen, I felt hopeful for the first time since COVID-19 began ravaging our country and invading our state and county.
If there is good to come out of this crisis we’re facing, it may be this: it is bringing our community together as never before as we fight a common enemy, an invisible virus. It is bringing out the good in people as they serve others, give to help those in need, and pray for each other, without regard to religion or lack of same, without regard to skin color, without regard to social standing, or the side of town they live in.
It is bringing us together as a community in a way we could never have imagined. I hope this spirit of caring and serving our neighbors continues even after the threat of the virus is over.
By Judie Holcomb-Pack, The Chronicle
