Thomas Breen photo
Rev. Ricardo Heredia (at podium) leads a prayer on the second floor of City Hall.
Pastor D’Hati Burgess with mask showing the late Kiana Brown.
City elected officials and local clergy invoked the power of prayer Friday afternoon as they reflected on the devastation wrought so far in 2020.
Around a dozen alders and the mayor held that “Hour of Power” press conference on the second floor of City Hall.
They gathered eight months into a year that has seen a deadly pandemic, mass protests in response to police brutality, a sharp increase in gun violence in the city, a tropical storm that deprived thousands of city residents of electricity, and the apparently accidental shooting death of an 8‑year-old in the Hill Thursday night.
Board of Alders Majority Leader and Westville Amity/Alder Richard Furlow (pictured) said that this was the first prayer press conference the local legislature had organized during his time on the board, and that 2020 is no ordinary year.
“In light of social distancing and in light of the things that are going on in this city, we thought it important that we take this moment to pray and reflect,” he said.
Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers (pictured) agreed. “2020 has been a really rough year for everyone in our city and nationally,” she said. “People are dealing with so many different things. Sometimes it seems hopeless. Whenever I’m faced with not knowing what to do or feeling like something needs to be done, I go back to my roots. Which is prayer.”
The alders and mayor had help Friday from a rabbi and two pastors who sought to put a name to the traumas and sorrows of the year so far — and to urge those who do have faith to tap into that well in this time of need.
“In the day and time which we are living, we most definitely need prayer,” said First Church of God Pastor D’Hati Burgess (pictured), who wore a face mask depicting 19-year-old Kiana Brown, who was shot and killed in her sleep in on Valley Street earlier this year.
Burgess described the calamities that have beset the city, the region, the country and the world over the past few months: the spread of the novel coronavirus and widespread sickness and death caused by Covid-19, a sharp increase in gun violence earlier this summer, and, most recently, a tropical storm that sent trees falling over the city and deprived 12,000 households of power at its height (according to this United Illuminating outage map, as of 3 p.m. Friday, 3,078 households (or 5.2 percent of the city) still do not have power following Tuesday’s storm).
“Prayer to a believer is like breath to a human being,” he said. “Without prayer life, there is no spiritual life.”
He prayed for peace — internal peace, and peace for the city.
Rabbi Shua Rosenstein (pictured) from the Chabad at Yale reflected on a specific Hebrew prayer, oseh shalom, that translates to, “He who creates peace above in heaver, may he bring peace to us.” Rosenstein himself was violently attacked earlier this year outside of the Chabad House.
Why does the prayer start with a command for peace in heaven? Rosenstein asked. Why not start with peace on Earth?
“True peace, real peace, comes with the recognition that every single one of us is created in the image of God,” he said. Regardless of faith, race, or sexual identity. Only when we accept that all are created in that hold image can we attain “true peace, real peace, and lasting peace” in this world.
Ricardo Heredia (pictured), pastor of Star of David church on Howard Avenue, offered his prayer and reflection in Spanish. Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez translated his words into English.
“I believe that in this day, that if we exclaim to God with faith, the presence of God will fall upon our communities,” he said.
He prayed for an end to crime and violence, an end to homicides, an end to discrimination and racism, and for relief from “illness and the deaths that it brings to our communities.”
Elicker (pictured) closed out the prayer presser by recalling a visit he had made roughly 12 hours prior: a visit to the hospital’s emergency room, where he met with the family of an 8‑year-old boy who was shot and killed in an apparent accident in the Hill Thursday night.
“Just to see the look on the mother’s eyes, who could never see their 8‑year-old child again, to think about her arms never being able to hold her 8‑year-old child again …” he paused as tears welled up in hos own eyes.
“No parent should ever have to bury a child,” he said.
Amidst such sorrow, he said, he does feel hope. “Hope springs from a shared communal sentiment that enough is enough,” he said. “That one funeral is too many.” He called for equality, peace, and inclusion — and said the elected officials in that room together Friday are all committed to helping make those ideals a reality.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the press conference.
Mark Twain On The Hypocrisy Of Prayer
Although I agree with the premise presented in The History of Prayer in America by James P. Moore Jr. that prayer has been a very common thread among Americans throughout our history, at times the book overplays the importance of public prayer by politicians by ignoring the politics behind the act.
Not every politician that prays is a believer — some are just exploiting those who are. And, some politicians offer prayers that are woefully (intentionally?) naïve of the societal ills (and their solutions) that exist in their own communities. These individuals often oversimplify complex problems — expecting God to solve everything without any intellectual, spiritual or humane work on their part.