More than 200 attend and join in a song Sunday during an outdoor service entitled A Call to Prayer for Social Justice, Reconciliation and Healing at St. John AME Church in Aurora Sunday. The 90-minute service was held outdoors at St. John AME Church Cathedral of Grace. Speakers represented Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith communities from Aurora and Naperville. Attendees wore face masks and sat in lawn chairs spaced for social distancing. Special music was provided by soloists, a keyboard player, and saxophone artist. In his statement of purpose, keynote speaker Rev. Jesse Hawkins, St. John AME pastor, spoke about 300 years of discrimination against black people. Other speakers included Rev. John Bell, pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora, who gave a prayer of repentance and confession. Rev. Jerome Leake, Aurora Police Department chaplain, opened the service with a prayer of invocation. The ecumenical event was co-sponsored by Fox Valley Christian Ministerial Alliance, Wesley United Methodist Church, Progressive Baptist Church, New England Congregational Church, Temple B’Nai Israel, and St. John AME, all Aurora congregations.Al Benson/The Voice
