GREENFIELD — Love, life and liberty. That was the theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer, which Greenfield-area churches recognized on Thursday, May 6, with a prayer service at the Hancock County Courthouse plaza.
Mark Wright, a pastor at Brandywine Community Church, said the event was an opportunity for residents who attend different churches to come together and celebrate their shared faith.
“I really feel like it is an unusual community in the fact that we have churches who love coming together and supporting one another,” Wright said. “We had a great turnout of pastors today.”
The prayer service was opened and closed by Paul George, vice president of the Greater Greenfield Ministerial Association, and Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell offered a proclamation in recognition of the day.
The National Day of Prayer has been recognized on the first Thursday in May since 1952, traditionally with a proclamation by the U.S. president along with events put on by congregations and communities across the country.
Representatives of 10 area churches, along with chaplains from Hancock Regional Hospital and the Greenfield Fire Territory, led those in attendance in a series of prayers. They prayed for local government leaders, for law enforcement, for families, for peace and justice and more.
About 50 to 60 people attended the event. Wright said he thought the attendance was still down somewhat due to COVID-19, but hopes it will get back to pre-pandemic levels and continue to grow in years to come.
With the impacts of the coronavirus still impacting the community, the group took the time to recognize health-care workers, with Russel Jarvis, the head chaplain at Hancock Regional Hospital, leading a prayer for them.
“It was great to be able to specifically lift up those in the medical field, nursing, the local hospital that have served us so well,” Wright said. “We just feel like they knocked it out of the park and served our community well, so it was nice to be able to pray for them.”
Although most churches in Hancock County are holding in-person worship services again, the members of the ministerial association have not been gathering during the pandemic.
“As far as the pastors coming together, this is the first time, today, that we’ve been together in over a year,” said Adam Detamore, pastor at Realife Church. “That part was really nice, to be able to get together and encourage one another.”
President Joe Biden, in his proclamation recognizing the day, also mentioned the impact that COVID-19 and a tumultuous political environment have had on the country.
“As we continue to confront the crises and challenges of our time — from a deadly pandemic, to the loss of lives and livelihoods in its wake, to a reckoning on racial justice, to the existential threat of climate change — Americans of faith can call upon the power of prayer to provide hope and uplift us for the work ahead,” he said.