Across US, black churches pray, protest police shootings

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Congregants in African-American churches across the country wore black to Sunday services and prayed over the men in attendance in a symbolic stand against fatal police shootings of unarmed black men.

Bishop T.D. Jakes told worshippers at The Potter’s House Church in Dallas that black men should not be “tried on the sidewalk.”

At Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Md., choir members sang “We Shall Overcome” for worshippers wearing T-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe.” Men at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles stood more than four rows deep around the altar for a special blessing and message from the pastor, Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake.

“Police forces are charged with protecting all our citizens,” said Blake, leader of the national Church of God in Christ, the largest black Pentecostal group in the U.S. “In a very special way, they are to abide by the laws they are called to enforce. They should not bring fear to our citizens, but rather confidence.”

The churches were responding to a call from several historically African-American denominations for what they called “Black Lives Matter” Sunday, in response to the recent police slayings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. The church actions came a day after marches and demonstrations by civil rights and other groups around the country pressing for changes to the criminal justice system.

“It is a time to hear God calling us to be relevant and responsive to the needs of people with us and around us,” wrote Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, an organizer of Sunday’s church action.

At morning services, the Rev. Lee P. Washington, pastor at Reid Temple AME Church in Glenn Dale, Md., called black clothing “serious dress for serious times.” He said those who contend that the black men who were killed by officers “deserve what they got” for disobeying police, or whose deaths were nothing more than an “unfortunate tragedy,” should think about the impact of the deaths on grieving families.

“In our minds, black lives do matter,” Washington said.

Several pastors sought blessings for law-enforcement officials and noted many do their jobs with integrity, but they said officers guilty of wrongdoing should be held accountable.