2 weeks Ago By Kylan Watson TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT
Zion Baptist Church was the site of a citywide prayer service on Sunday organized by the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity. The service came in the wake of last month’s election loss for the Democratic Party, which was largely supported by the group’s leaders and their individual congregations. Leaders of the organization started planning the service in an effort to foster healing and unity.
The leaders settled on doing a service dedicated to praying over a variety of concerns that would come with losing a general election. “I have been thinking about things like that about what’s happening to our people in terms of employment and developing themselves spiritually primarily,” said the Rev. Gus Roman, senior pastor of Zion Baptist Church.
“So, I said spiritually we need an awakening and I think awakenings come as a result of prayer.” Roman emphasized during the service of putting faith into action, through community work and doing more events around the area. During the service the leaders prayed four times around different issues like homelessness, income inequality, gun violence, human trafficking and gentrification.
Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! “It was Pastor Roman and Bishop [J. Louis] Felton they came up with the vision and they asked for an opportunity for the city to come together and pray ecumenically, meaning all faiths coming together even though it was sponsored by Black Clergy we wanted everybody. All kinds, all faiths, all diversity, and so we were able to pull that together with the help of local leaders in the City of Philadelphia,” said the Rev.
David S. Smith, pastor of Church Of The Redeemer Baptist Church. Smith said they chose Zion as the site because of the foundation that was laid by its former pastor and civil rights leader, the late Rev.
Leon H. Sullivan. “We [the Black church] are the greatest institution that Black folks have, we have stood with our people and have been there when the bottom has fallen out,” said the Rev.
Carolyn Cavaness, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church. “We’ve never turned away and so this makes sense. The system isn’t working for everybody.
” Bridging divides is arduous work, but the attendees of the service seemed ready to do their best to help heal some of that divide that followed the election between Vice President Kamala Harris and now President-elect Donald Trump. “This is an opportunity for the church to come together and have conversation about what it looks like to see God’s Kingdom come and God’s will being done on Earth as it has already been established in the heavens,” Smith said. “God’s blessed us to be a place [Philadelphia] where the eyes of the world are looking at us.
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