Believers from across Mercer County gathered on the front steps of Shiloh Baptist Church Thursday evening for National Day of Prayer, and afterward, a group of interfaith leaders visited each of the 11 2014 murder sites.
“We’re using this National Day of Prayer as a time to pray for each of those 11 families,” Shiloh Pastor Darrell Armstrong said. “I absolutely believe that prayer changes things. And we are in a spiritual fight for the minds, spirits and bodies of the children of our city.”
Minister Denise Scott leads a prayer outside the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton on the National Day of Prayer Thursday May 1, 2014. (Trentonian photo/Jakcie Schear)
The National Day of Prayer is a nationwide annual observance that is held on the first Thursday of May. Last year, believers from Mercer County walked around City Hall seven times in observance of prayer. But this year, organizers decided to have a prayer walk at the end of the prayer vigil that was held on Shiloh’s front steps.
“We’ve been talking about a prayer walk for a while,” Reverend Lukata Mjumbe, Organizer for the United Mercer Interfaith Organization, said. “In the midst of all the shootings and murders last year, many of our Pastors were already engaged in meetings and speaking directly with families. We talked about how important it is for us to be in the spaces where a lot of this violence has happened.”
Reverend Mjumbe said the idea for a prayer walk resurfaced again after a meeting last week following the shooting at Galilee Baptist Church. Three people were injured in that gang-related shooting, which took place during the funeral for 19-year-old Cagney Roberts. And two days later, approximately 50 religious leaders gathered to talk about how clergy can best help the city of Trenton.
“There were questions being asked about whether churches were going to stop holding gang-related funerals,” Pastor Armstrong said. “But my colleagues and I agree that we cannot allow this kind of vagrant activity to keep us from respecting life. In times like these, we need to minister to families in need. Families need a deep understanding that there is someone greater than them. And if churches stop ministering in that way by not having funerals, then we surrender to the other side.”
Pastor Armstrong also said he feels that economic conditions has added to the lack of respect for another person’s life.
“We need to signal to the families of our city that children are not expendable, and that every child is valuable in the sight of God,” Pastor Armstrong said. “We are saddened by every murder, wherever it takes place, regardless of color, race and creed. But there seems to be a devaluing of life in the city of Trenton, and I’m sad. I think economics has to do with that. In my opinion, poor White, Black and Latino lives are not valued by mainstream society. We want to use this day of prayer as a time to signal to families in all 13 Mercer County municipalities that every life is valuable. We must be outraged when any life is taken.”
So far this year, 11 people have been murdered in Trenton, which is one more than the number of people who were killed within the first four months of 2013.
Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. announced at a press conference Wednesday that he has met with New Jersey State Police leaders, acting Attorney General John Hoffman and Mercer County prosecutors to create a new crime prevention strategy that will be unveiled in the next couple of weeks.
“Young people are dying—mostly young black males—and we can’t afford to lose them,” Bishop of New Jersey Reverend William Stokes said at Thursday’s prayer vigil. “God didn’t intend for this to happen. We have to work together to heal the community and teach young people that there’s more purpose to life and a better way than violence. We are created in the image and likeness of God, and God has purposes for us in life. That purpose is not to kill one another.”