Youngstown mayor's prayer breakfast serves up ideas

By LINDA M. LINONIS

linonis@vindy.com

GIRARD

Speakers at the Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast put ideas on the table for the 200 at the Tuesday event at the Mahoning Country Club.

Each challenged clergy, government officials and lay faith leaders to digest the information on diversity and use it as a recipe to act for the common good.

Keynote speaker Sister Nancy Dawson, general superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown who teaches world religions at Youngstown State University, focused on the theme “Better Together.”

Sister Nancy said recent news that Youngstown is mired in poverty and the metropolitan area has a high poverty rate should prompt civic and religious leaders to “be better than ever” because the situation demands it. Leaders aren’t the only ones to be held accountable. “It’s time to energize and use the gifts and talents” of many, she said.

“Leaders aren’t born ... it’s about attitude in dire situations,” she said. “We need to be better together ... and develop an attitude of hope in each person and community.”

Sister Nancy urged civic and faith leaders of all denominations to “embrace the common denominators and the differences” because “it’s in diversity that we find richness.”

The speaker said leaders and residents must adopt the idea of “we are one” and develop an “attitude about building community.” She noted there is a “lot of sense and experience” in leadership in the Valley. Sister Nancy also urged young people to “show up” and be engaged in their schools and communities.

Sister Nancy said, “We who teach not only want to educate the head but the heart, too.”

This approach, she said, will cultivate leaders interested in the common good. “For the city and Valley, it will be better than ever ... the best ever,” she said of leaders’ ability to forge a healthy community.

Cary Dabney introduced the speaker and as president of Inter Faith Youth Core at YSU, briefly discussed young leaders. He said they must “embrace the values” held by various religions and not just “put up with one another.”

The only way to survive, he said, “is to live in harmony together.”

Jessica Valsi, president of YSU Student Muslim Association, offered the opening prayer. In brief remarks, she said, “Diversity is the opportunity to know one another for true acceptance. We have to take an active role in understanding,” she said.

The Rev. Dr. Lewis Macklin, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown, gave an emotional presentation about One Church, One Child, of which he is chairman.

The Rev. Mr. Macklin said society is judged by how it treats its fragile members — youth and elderly. He suggested the One Church, One Child program as an “opportunity for redemption.”

He said more families must step up to foster and adopt Ohio children who need homes. Families who take on this calling to care for children need the support of their church, synagogue or mosque. “Make a difference by giving a child a forever family,” he urged.

Elsie Dursi, director of Mahoning Valley Association of Churches, which sponsors the breakfast, introduced the Austintown Fitch Concert Choir directed by Kay Williams and accompanied by Trudi Vetterley. They sang “Kyrie”; “Bashana,” a Jewish song about hope for the future; and “Carol of the Bells.”