With news of yet another child’s death fresh in their ears, Atlantans gathered Nov. 2 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church on Gordon Street to remember their dead.

The feast of All Souls, the Church’s traditional day of commemoration for the deceased, was the setting for the ecumenical evening prayer service. It was the culmination of a day of prayer planned by the inner-city parish to “make explicit the connection between the grief shared by the community and the way in which our faith should fit into the whole picture,” according to Father John Adamski, pastor of St. Anthony’s.

The day began with an overflow crowd at the 11:30 a.m. Mass. Throughout the afternoon, parishioners kept a vigil before the Blessed Sacrament.

Over 150 people attended the evening service, which opened with an invocation by Father Isaac Miller, Episcopal Chaplain at the Atlanta University Center.

Grace Davis, president of Atlanta Women Concerned Against Crime, led the response to the Old Testament reading, praying with the psalmist, “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saved.”

The New Testament selection as read by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, followed by Rev. Walter Kimbrough, pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church, who delivered the sermon.

Rev. Kimbrough reminded those gathered at St. Anthony’s that “something good can happen in our community,” urging people to reach out to those around them.

Speaking about the relatives of the children who have disappeared or been murdered in the city, Rev. Kimbrough said, “All those families are my kindred” and focused on the need to be concerned with more than just the safety of one’s own immediate family group.

A free-will offering was taken up to help support the activities of the Committee to Stop Our Children’s Murders. Fenus Taylor, secretary-treasure of STOP, expressed her personal grief over the news, coming just before the evening service, that another black child had been found slain in the city.

Following the recitation of the Beatitudes, led by St. Anthony’s parishioner Karen Clemons, the congregation joined in the Lord’s Prayer. Atlanta city policemen, families of missing and dead children, blacks, whites, Catholics, Protestants, religious and clergy joined hands and were as one heart in prayer.

Archbishop Donnellan conferred the closing Benediction on the solemn, thoughtful crowd, which dispersed slowly after St. Anthony’s choir sung the final hymn, “Let There be Peace on Earth.”

Outside, on the steps of St. Anthony’s people discussed the children’s murders, which continues to plague the city.

Rev. Kimbrough noted that “the sickness is real. Potentially we are all murderers.” He reiterated his personal belief in the need for one-to-one action.

“He (the murderer) is somebody’s child. Somebody knows him. If we reach enough people, we will reach him.”