PRATTVILLE — Ernest prayers for forgiveness and unity and for trust and love echoed through downtown Prattville Friday morning.
About 200 people gathered in front of and around City Hall as pastors from nine local churches and others offered prayers in the midst of wide spread civil unrest gripping the nation in the wake of George Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer.
Mayor Bill Gillespie Jr. announced for the vigil during Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
"We need prayer and we need to take care of one another," he said then. "The only way we are going to get through this is by taking care of one another."
Gillespie gave the opening remarks Friday morning.
"Let me start by saying that this event is intended to bring hope and unity and awareness to our community," he said. " We know that we are a resilient community, and we will recover. It will take time, but we will recover. We are seeing communities come together to uplift one another. Because we all know that we are in this together."
The chiming of the 9 o'clock hour from First Presbyterian Church, about half a block away, signaled the beginning of the vigil. Prayers were offered for compassion, forgiveness, unity, peace, protection, trust, hope, perseverance and love. The gathering quickly took on the spirit of a church service, complete with hand held paper fans. Some went to their knees on the lawn of City Hall. Others raised their arms in the air. There were shouts of agreement during the litany of prayers and whispered amens.
At an especially poignant portion, Greg Duke, pastor at Riverside Presbyterian Church, led the crowd in the recitation of the Lord's Prayer.
Assistant Police Chief Diane Thomas began the vigil and prayed for God to "...replace hate with love."
Each prayer took between three to five minutes. Some quoted scripture before or after the prayers.
"We need you right now, Father, in this time of unrest and uncertainty," Rev. Robert King, of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church said during his prayer for compassion.
In his prayer for forgiveness, Pastor Peyton Hill of First Baptist Church, asked for grace. "You throw our sins as far away as the east is from the west, Father forgive us."
A loudspeaker broadcast the entreaties throughout downtown allowing people to take advantage of the few shady spots along Main Street. People were seen poking their heads out of windows of downtown buildings and folks working out at a nearby fitness center stopped their outside runs to join the crowd.
Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson spoke near the end of the service. He mentioned Floyd's death saying "...when I saw it , it hurt me." continuing that the officers involved "...broke and dishonored the oaths they took."
"We're not a perfect people, we never will be," the chief said. "We're going to make mistakes every day, it's how we stand up and correct it. We must look at our communities as one and overcome it as one, in the communities. What I'm proudest of, Prattville's a leader.
"We're going to lead other communities getting through this."
After the vigil ended, dozens of people lingered. Social distancing was put on hold as hugs were given and kisses on cheeks were passed out. There were tears and laughter.
After the service, Gillespie reflected, mentioning the perfecting timing of the chimes.
"We started right at 9 o'clock with the bells of hope," he said. "I think this shows just what kind of community we have, to come together like this. I heard several positive comments after the service was over. Hopefully what we started today can continue throughout our community, here in Prattville and other places, as we go forward."
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
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