Feb 15, 2015 2 min read

Ministers in Washington are planning to hold prayer walks through some of the city’s tougher neighborhoods as their way to address crime.

The walks, which will begin in March, grew out of Washington Ministerial Association’s two years of efforts to reach out to the community, said the Rev. Stuart D. Broberg, pastor of Church of the Covenant on East Beau Street.

“The church tends to be inwardly focused. This is a way for us to be more outwardly focused,” Broberg said Sunday prior to a unity service the association held at Washington High School.

Nearly 100 people attended the service, although a march by ministers from the Washington County Courthouse to the school was canceled because of extremely low temperatures following Saturday’s snowstorm.

The association is among several organizations that organized marches and rallies in the past year to draw attention to crime in Washington after 10-year-old Ta’Niyah Thomas was killed March 31 while she ran to her mother as bullets were fired through the door to their apartment.

Washington Mayor Brenda Davis said there have been seven homicides in the city since she took office three years ago.

“One is too many,” Davis said before speaking at Sunday’s service.

The Rev. Paula Brower delivered the sermon, saying “the unity of evil has been running ramshod through our city.”

“In the past year, a lot has happened. There have been marches. There have been walks,” Brower said.

“We’ve become complacent. We have chosen to not lock arms,” she said.