by Robin Forbes
The morning of Saturday, June 26 brought community leaders and families together for a prayer breakfast in memoriam of those killed due to gun violence in Roanoke since the beginning of the year. Most visible were eighteen metal folding chairs that sat empty except for a few holding pictures of victims of gun violence. Their names were read in a solemn tone while a single rose was offered to those who came forward in support of certain ones.
The event, held in the parking lot of YouthHQ at Goodwill on Melrose Ave, NW. was hosted by support organization F.E.D.U.P. (Families Expecting Deliverance Using Prayer). Elder Charnika P. Elliott of New Life Christian Fellowship, Salem as emcee spoke passionately on the program’s theme having lost a cousin to gun violence.
“The case is still unsolved and that leaves a place of unrest in your heart. Even when God brings you healing there are still those questions and I know many of you have that same feeling,” she said.
Elliott opened with prayerful words and lifted the names of F.E.D.U.P co-founders Renea Taylor, Rita Joyce, Tracy Penn, Nicole Ross, Lorina Wilson, and Stacy Sheppard for hosting the event and providing support for those mourning the loss of loved ones to tragedy. Breakfast was provided by Feeding Southwest Roanoke and several commercial vendors.
Vice Mayor Joe Cobb gave words of encouragement as well as troubling statistics about conditions plaguing the Roanoke Valley.
“We’re living in the convergence of a global pandemic from COVID-19 and two epidemics of gun violence and opioid abuse,” he said. “This year alone homicides due to gun violence have tripled, as have aggravated assaults to 35. In the past year our community has also experienced over 450 opioid and drug overdoses and 80 fatalities.”
The event was a platform for pastors to rise to the demand of charging the crowd to the event’s troubling theme.
Bishop J.L. Jackson, Refreshing Church, Rke. encouraged the crowd with a fiery address that spoke to the “power of prayer.”
“Our souls seek calm among the storm and if we’re honest with ourselves right here in Roanoke City we have chaos,” said Jackson in a tone that resonated with truth. “Yet whenever there’s anxiety about the state of the world or things around us we must pray. For prayer still changes things and brings us peace in times when nothing else works. “Paving a path for a peaceful world starts within ourselves.”
Reverend Cecil Scott, pastor, Divine Church, Rke. spoke about the responsibility we as citizens should bear to change the narrative.
“It’s easy to blame others for the state of things. But until we take responsibility ourselves it will never end,” Rev. Scott chided. “I want you to say to yourself that it’s my responsibility. It’s my responsibility to speak up…to commit to young women and men … to not sit on my hands and point the finger. You can blame every pastor in the valley but until you take responsibility yourself it will never change.”
A major voice about the community Rev. Christine Hodge, pastor Mount Zion AME, in northwest also delivered a prayerful message and briefly spoke about the Ministry of Presence, a group of community pastors and other laypersons who gather to promote prayer.
Rita Joyce, president, F.E.D.U.P. spoke about the group’s origins. “The organization started actually back in 2005 with six women. We all came together because we had lost a loved one through an act of violence,” she said. Joyce’s son was killed in 2004 leaving her to step in and help parent the four children he left behind.
“Our mission was really to embrace and to reach out to anyone who’s experienced a loss as we have. To give them resources, to give them hope, to help them to know how we got through it, and to get through it you have to come together with commonality and talk about it where someone else can understand what you’ve been through.”
Joyce also explained that F.E.D.U.P. originally started as a “healing group” to help her and the other five women manage and work through their grief. The group hosted annual candlelight vigils and soon began their Christmas of Hope program which provides toys and other items for children and families who have lost a loved one to gun violence. The organization’s outreach had been dwindling when they were invited to join a task force initiated by the City of Roanoke to curb violence in the area.
