The temperature was almost perfect in the high 60s. Skies were blue over Downtown Jackson on Sunday evening as the sun lowered in the western sky.
Jackson Mayor Scott Conger made a joke while addressing about 200 people who were assembled in front of City Hall on Main Street.
"I think today is proof that Councilman (Johnny) Dodd has a connection on the inside up there," Conger said. "How else do you explain weather this nice for an event like this on Feb. 2?"
The people chuckled at the joke, appreciating the bit of humor amid the reasons for the gathering.
In the wake of four incidents this month that resulted in homicides in Jackson in January, Dodd called for a prayer service in front of City Hall.
Dodd and his I-Care group put it together, and Rhonda Pettigrew, the pastor of Destiny Church, served as a co-emcee with Dodd for the event.
Along with Conger, Pettigrew and Dodd, speakers included pastors Earnest Pope, Jesse Haynes and Thomas Varughese, State Representative Chris Todd, Police Chief Thom Corley and a couple of song performances.
The assembled group was made of Black and white people, Republicans and Democrats standing side-by-side, all with the intention of asking God to intervene on behalf of the people of the city of Jackson.
"We appreciate so much the fact that all of you would come together for this purpose," Corley told the people. "Our officers are working hard every day to keep Jackson safe, but we've got serious problems in our city.
"And I'm proud to see we've had success in recent days collaborating with federal and county law enforcement agencies to get those accused of crimes off our streets, but this isn't a problem we can arrest our way out of. It's going to take everyone here and everyone in the city not here banding together and saying this isn't good for Jackson."
Todd's message supported Corley's.
"The police officers are working hard to get people off the streets that choose not to abide by our laws," Todd said. "But it takes cooperation from the rest of the people in Jackson.
"For whatever reason, it's hard for police to get help in investigating crimes because no one wants to talk. But if everyone would keep watch over their own neighborhoods, when they see something bad call it out and let the authorities know, I think we can get this crime situation under control."
Pettigrew had everyone join hands at the end of the service as she prayed a prayer of unity over the city. She then pushed for more unity by giving everybody a couple of minutes to gather among themselves in the crowd, praying for each other and interceding for each of their respective needs as well as those for the city before she came back to dismiss the event.
"It is so good to see this much unity," Pettigrew said after the event. "And that's how we'll really make some ground on this problem. We can't let evil over run our city, and there have been a lot of bad things happen recently. But all of us unified asking our Heavenly Father to do what only He can do in Jackson is how we'll get this problem solved."
Dodd said he's been through similar situations before - organizing prayer services, I-Care meetings and walks after shootings or rashes of crime.
"We do these after big events like we've had here unfortunately, and then everything settles down, and we do too," Dodd said. "Maybe this time, we don't need to get comfortable once the crime rate goes down. We need to keep doing events like these because this service has been over for a few minutes, and we still have people out here hugging and laughing together.
"This is what creates unity among us, and that unity is what we need."
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news