The following article is by Lisa Wangsness and first appeared on June 17 on Boston.com. The full article can be found here.
In a gesture borne of frustration and faith, a group of clergy from across Boston gathered in the City Council chamber yesterday to ask God for peace on the city’s streets.
“The violence in the neighborhood in which we serve is intolerable,’’ said the Rev. Cathy H. George of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Upham’s Corner. “And it wouldn’t be put up with anywhere else that I’ve ever been in the state.’’
The City Council opens each of its weekly meetings with a prayer, but yesterday, in a show of concern about a wave of violence in which five people under 16 have been shot this spring, Council President Michael P. Ross and Councilor at Large Ayanna Pressley asked a number of clergy to come and pray.
Highlighted Quote: Those who came yesterday were women and men, black and white, Baptist, Presbyterian, Jewish, Catholic, Episcopalian, and nondenominational Christian. They included the Rev. Stephen T. Ayres of Old North Church in the North End; the Rev. William E. Dickerson II of Greater Love Tabernacle; the Rev. Gayle Elizabeth Harris, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts; the Rev. Hurmon Hamilton of Roxbury Presbyterian Church; and Rabbi Elaine Zecher of Temple Israel.
