Community service set for Thursday
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 14, 2015 1:46 PM
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Flowers and mementos sit on the brick around the Plonk Memorial Clock at Wayne Community College in memory of print shop employee Ron Lane, who was killed early Monday morning at the college. The community is welcome to visit the memorial throughout the day.
A time of prayer is being planned for Thursday to pray for the community in the wake of Monday's tragedy on the Wayne Community College campus.
The service will be held from 12:15-12:45 p.m. at First Baptist Church, said its pastor, the Rev. Dr. Glenn Phillips, who is also de facto leader of CLIFF, or Clergy Living in Faith and Fellowship.
"A few of us met yesterday during the crisis and thought we didn't want to let too many days go by without saying we're in prayer for our community," he said this morning.
The local ministers association, which hosts the annual Lenten lunches, historically holds such events on Wednesday, Phillips said, but felt an extra day of preparation might be appropriate to get the word out to the public.
"It will only last about 30 minutes, in hopes that folks can get a lunch," he said.
Among the churches that are also part of the event are St. Paul United Methodist, Madison Avenue Baptist, First African Baptist, St. Mark Church of Christ and Best Grove Missionary Baptist.
Phillips said he also invited city and county representatives to the special service.
The public is encouraged to attend the gathering at the church, at 125 S. John St.
"It's simply going to be a time of prayer," the pastor said. "It's not going to be a political rally. There's not going to be any sermons or anything like that.
"We'll sing a couple of hymns, have a liturgy and some prayers."
Phillips said the most important thing is to unify the community and lend support to those at Wayne Community College.
"We just wanted them to know we're praying," he said. "Just come together and pray, because I know there were a lot of emotions yesterday."