 for us from 1 Peter 5 it says as a fellow elder and as a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker of the glory that is going to be revealed shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you not for shameful gain but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock and when the chief shepherd appears you'll receive the unfading crown of glory likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble please bow your head with me dear Lord we love you and praise you and thank you Lord thank you for this opportunity to come together with fellow saints this morning to seek your face and Lord especially we bring before you the pastors of this city the thousands of pastors and elders and leaders Lord protect them and bless them and strengthen them Lord may these men and women love the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may they be kept from temptation of every different kind may they be full of faith and full of the Spirit may know they know their calling may they remember all the good things you've done for them and may they exercise their responsibilities with joy and delight and hope and peace Lord we need these men and women in this city we want your blessing on them for the purposes of your great name and for the well-being of the flock in this city we thank you Lord we praise you and love you in Jesus name amen in many cases these program gatherings were met with violence opposition but they played a significant in galvanizing American society and the civil rights movement and preparing the heart of a nation the social change it was the power during the weeks that followed the 9-11 terrorist attacks people from all walks of life came together and they prayed for the victims and their families as well as for peace and understanding churches synagogues mosques temples across the country open their doors welcoming whoever would come to offer a space for them to pray to gather to experience healing and allow for grieving as a community these prayer gatherings help to promote a sense of unity solidarity among people of different religions in different face and it reminded us that we are all part of the human family connected sharing a common humanity after the 2015 shooting at the Immanuel AME church in Charleston South Carolina the community came together to pray pray for the victims and to call for an end to hate and violence the prayer gathering helped to promote a sense of unity healing from the trauma that came and it inspired prayer across the country it was prayer that evoked that incredible act of forgiveness by the family of the victims towards the perpetrator Dylan Roof immediately diffusing the powder keg of potential for explosive violent reaction to such a heinous crime perpetrated against innocent African Americans in a prayer meeting what used to be a safe space a sacred space as people around the world privately praying on their own for Damar Hamlin to the shock and awe of those who would ban prayer from the public square ESPN hosts Dan Olofsky publicly offered a prayer for the Buffalo Bills pluric during a live broadcast he said maybe this is not the right thing to do but it's just on my heart maybe it's the right thing to do Olofsky said I'm gonna do it loud I'm gonna close my eyes I'm gonna bow my head and I'm just gonna pray for him Olofsky went on to say a prayer as this NFL live co-host didn't know what to do but bow their heads close their eyes Laura Rutledge and Mark Spears joined in and on national television around the world prayer was engaged Olofsky said God we come to you in these moments that we don't understand moments that are hard because we believe that you're a God and coming to you and praying to you has impact we're sad we're angry and we want answers he continued but some things are unanswerable we just want to pray truly come to you and pray for strength for damar for healing for damar for comfort for damar to be with his family to give them peace the examples go on and on but the solid Brazilian strength of a church a synagogue a mosque is not in its finances it's in its prayer life COVID-19's devastating impact on our nation especially our community here in New York City where we felt the brunt of it but it galvanized our congregation and congregations across the city around the tri-state area close to 2,000 people gathered Monday through Friday in our church on a 6 a.m. prayer call members of other congregations joined us as well and this past April 21st Friday we celebrated the 800th day of prayer prayer a powerful tool to promote unity peace understanding healing from the trauma associated with human experience it can bring people together regardless of their religious beliefs regardless of their backgrounds and ethnicity ethnicities and promote a sense of common purpose in community as we continue to face the challenges in our world today from social unrest political unrest environmental crisis and beyond prayer is the way to seek guidance to turn to someone greater than ourselves the scriptures clear if my people he said my people you hear that Reverend Monroe's it means relationship it means people who have power to move God to action my people call by my name will humble themselves and pray seek my face a condition to be met and a promise to be kept then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal there why do we pray because we know it works we've seen it work and will continue to cling to it and use it to transcend the realities that we face on a daily basis so today commendation to our mayor who boldly proclaims his faith and says I'm calling the city to pray that's the kind of leadership we need that's the kind of leadership we want that's the kind of leadership we have let us welcome the mayor of New York City Eric Adams but Pastor Bernard brought me to tears with that one are you talking about just laying out what prayer means and we just want to give you this proclamation to the church and to all of us today I Eric Adams the mayor after Mayor Dinkins of the city of New York do hereby proclaim Thursday May 4th 2023 New York City Day of Prayer and take a photo with our cameras I think I think that's over here thank you I want to thank the CCC family and my colleagues in government of my amazing friend our Chief Law Enforcement Officer and please please be seated I'm sorry my Chief Law Enforcement Officer affectionately we call Tish Latisha James our amazing district attorney Eric Gonzalez a praying woman Farah Lewis I know I saw her counsel women Lewis and a real leader pioneer one of the first Indian women to be elected in the state of New York Assemblywoman Raj Jennifer Raj Kamal for joining us in my brevity I want to just talk about two things one the just the power prayer the power prayer I have been extremely transparent about who I am because I wanted people to know the power of prayer you know 32 years ago God placed on my heart that January 1st 2022 I would be the mayor of the city of New York but God said God said do not be silent because if you are silent then when you get there people are going to believe you stumbled there and everyone I saw everyone that I knew those who knew me back then attorney general James probably thought back then you know Eric must be on medication everywhere I traveled to as a lieutenant and captain I said I'm going to be mayor January 1st 2022 God wanted me to allow people to watch if you just pray and and prayer is not so much verbal as what you feel inside and I was very clear and I believe that the reason he placed that on my heart because he wanted to show us all a perfectly imperfect person can rise to the highest political power in a city in the most powerful country when you think about all of my failures for those of you who are old enough to remember when illegal numbers were around I was the number one number runner in South Jamaica Queens people who knew me back there said I don't know how the heck you became a man when you look at the fact that sitting in school and being bullied didn't want to stand up to read because I was undiagnosed dyslexic when you look at the fact my brother and I went on the wrong side of the law and we were arrested when you look at the fact that we were rejected how do you go from being arrested dyslexic rejected and now you elected to be the mayor of the city of New York that's prayer that's prayer and I remember the day like it was yesterday when God said January 1st 2022 you're going to be the mayor I said what you may not have noticed but the last few months as pastor laid out I've been I have been talking about the need of God being back in our lives and it's because the same voice I heard 32 years ago spoke to me a few months ago and said talk about God Eric talk about God we have been so shame of God there was a time when you were on your job and people can look at you and say there's something different about you you didn't only expose your God like qualities on Sunday you expose them every day of the week and people can see it in your midst and they can see it in your wall they can see it how you speak you will be in the midst of doing something in your office space and people will say there's something different about you I'll never forget and I talk about this often when I was growing up as a young man I used to take boxing lessons and I was so good in the gym but when I got in the ring I would get knocked out all the time my trainers say you leave your best fight in the gym this is the gym right here in our houses of worship these places are the gym when when when pastor Bernard give you the words of training it's because he wants you to go into the ring and fight to fight it is not good to be just a good rush of prayer we have to be a good executor doctors don't go to medical school to learn how to read the philosophies of medicine they go to execute the healing process lawyers don't go to law school just to learn the principles of law they go to execute the law we cannot be merely good worshipers we have to be good practitioners I cannot believe I cannot believe with all of the God-fearing people in this city that we are still dealing with the crime with our young people in the city I cannot believe with all of the worshipers in this city that we have young people who are growing up in homeless shelters and no one is going there nurturing them praying for them being with them they just revealed the other day something I've been talking about for a long time loneliness is equivalent to smoking packs of cigarettes today how many of us spent our time and our senior centers knocking on our neighbors doors talking to them uplifting them during this period where people are in a dog place not only post-covid but pre-covid executors are out there healing people every day you got 60,000 migrants and asylum seekers in the city fleeing persecution in the countries that they came from good executors are going there helping them learn English helping them navigate the difficulties of the time of being here all of us came from somewhere and we need to be there for those who are in need you go down the list you look at the homelessness on these streets mental health illness is that an epic proportion this is a moment for executors and you know there's a tribe the Massey tribe Chancellor Banks always remind me of he stated that when they go visit each other in the tribes in the village they don't say hello they say how are the children based on that answer they know how well the village is doing so let me leave you with this question how are the children how are the children and don't answer to your neighbor just think in your mind how are the children suicide rates among children have increased to an epic proportion they are depressed more at nine and ten year old our babies are saying I'm feeling depressed they start their day going to the corner bodega buying cannabis and fentanyl and sit in the classroom and try to learn they look at tiktok that's teaching them how to steal cars young boy was burned 85% of his body because he did a tiktok challenge the same tiktok that our children are seeing here in America you cannot see it in China where they created how are the children how are the children little girls want plastic surgery at 11 and 12 years old because they don't like their images of how they look with their natural ethnic beauty how are the children how are the children looking outclass from 65% of black and brown children don't meet proficiency if you don't educate you will incarcerate how are the children young black boys and carving highways of death with nine millimeter bullets killing other young people the level of young people who are dying from violence from other young people is is rising at a level that is challenging across the country how are the children how are the children and if the children are not fine then we can't blame the children because we are flying fine because of our parents so the breakdown is not in what the children are doing a breakdown is what we are not doing so I want some devoted worshipers but I want devoted executors we need to go out and execute and let me in with the power of prayer what did prayer produce first understand what New York City is New York City in New York State is the most powerful state in the most powerful country on the globe so what did prayer produce prayer produced a person of color to be the DA and Kings County Manhattan and the Bronx prayer produced the highest law enforcement official in the state in Leticia James prayer produced two of the three city-wide electives and Jomani Williams and Eric Adams person of color prayer produced Hakeem Jeffries the first person of color to lead the Congress prayer produced the leader in the Senate person of color the leader in the assembly person of color the leader in the city council person of color 30 to 40 of the committee chairs are people of color prayer produced us and now we are here all of the marching all of the prayer all of the worshiping all of the singing all that we ever asked what we have and I hear people outside saying fight the power they grow we are the power now what are we gonna do with the power because if we took the power that prayer produced just to attack each other then we are desecrating the graves of those who prayed for us to get here let's turn this prayer into recovering the people who have been denied so many years this is the byproduct of all of that prayer is right now what are we going to do with it we need to uplift this moment we need to capture what the prayers were whoever believed prayer doesn't work God gave us the example right here in New York City he produced all those who have gone through the trials and tribulation to now be the leaders of the nation four of the top cities in America are being led by people of color Los Angeles Chicago New York Houston what more does he have to show we are now all in the boat in the midst of the storm he's laying down the rest a little weariness and we are shaking him and waking him up oh ye of little faith he brought us here now it's time for us to do something with what we have gotten I'm ready to use that what the power of prayer has brought me I need all of us to join together and use that what the power of prayer has brought us thank you church thank you Pastor Morose and thank you for all worshiping together