Natchez — The annual Community Thanksgiving Prayer Service is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 418 Morgantown Road in Natchez, according to Rev. David O’Connor, secretary of the Miss-Lou Ministerial Alliance and pastor of St. Mary and Assumption congregations.

The message will be delivered by the Rev. Darian Duckworth, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church.

The service has been planned by members of the Ministerial Alliance. Several ministers, members of the Alliance will have lead parts in the prayer service.These include, Revs. Steve Pearson, Ed Esau, Bo Swilley, Dennis Flach, James Brooks, Charles Macko, Bishop Melvin Jackson and Bishop Stanley Searcy, the host pastor.

Searcy and his wife, co-pastor Brenda Searcy, said the service was a community event and everyone was welcome.

“We welcome all members of the community to our church home for this event. The music and singing will be led by the New Hope Choir,” Searcy said. “We are honored to host this worship service for the people of our community.”

“To the best of my knowledge, the ministerial alliance has organized and sponsored a Community Thanksgiving Prayer Service since about 1970,” O’Connor said. The purpose of the prayer service from the beginning was to draw the community together in prayer. The purpose of this year’s service is essentially the same, to draw people from all walks of life, from all ethnic and racial groups, from all age groups and from all denominations in prayer.”

“On behalf of the Ministerial Alliance, I invite the members of this community to join together in prayer,” O’Connor said. “It is our opportunity to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy in this community, it is a time to acknowledge the challenges that are before us, and finally, by our praying together we can lay solid foundations of understanding and cooperation.”

Rev. O’Connor said the purpose of the service is to unite the community.

“It is the hope of the Natchez Ministerial Alliance that the Thanksgiving Prayer service on Tuesday5 will find many people willing to come together with open hearts and minds in a stance of prayer before God,” he said. “It is our hope also that it will strengthen our resolve to continue our quest for unity.”

The honor guard for this service will be provided by the Knights of Peter Claver from Holy Family Church and the Knights of Columbus from St. Mary Basilica.

The offering to be taken up during the prayer service will be given to the Sunshine Shelter and Kyle’s House. The service will be followed by a reception in the New Hope fellowship hall.