(Editor’s note: This introduction and “Prayer for the City” was written and offered by founding Congregation Beth Torah member Roshann Parris after Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke during Yom Kippur morning worship at the Reform congregation in Overland Park.)
Shanah Tovah, fellow congregants. Thirty years ago this year, a small group of us sat in Hal and Carol Sader’s living room to dream a dream of a new congregation, a new community.
These 30 years later, we could hardly imagine this magnificent and peaceful place we share today; we could hardly imagine the impact we as a congregation could have on social justice institutions within our region, where we have together worked to repair the world we live in. And we could only imagine that we would have the privilege of welcoming the mayor of the largest city in our region on this, the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Mr. Mayor, in your honor, we are creating our congregation’s very first prayer for our city, inspired by you. We honor you for all you have done not just for Kansas City, but for and with the mayors of dozens of cities in the region. Indeed, you are a living example that all boats can rise under inspired leadership.
And we honor the hundreds of mayors you’ve served as national chairman as you’ve worked to make our country a place in which we can all — each and every one of us — feel safe … and proud … and respected … and inspired. And so, Mr. Mayor, today, we offer our first “Prayer for the City.” This one’s for you.
Lord, thank you for creating a passion — a fire in the belly of our city’s public servants — so that we can harvest their selflessness as they seek to make for us a better region.
We pray for Mayor James and all those mayors, city council members, county executives and so many others in service to our communities, that they may be guided by both their heads and hearts as they devote themselves passionately to the best interests of our community.
We pray for the remarkable, selfless men and women who put their lives on the line 24 hours a day — the police and firefighters and EMS first-responders (several who are with us this day) — not only in Greater Kansas City, but in the Carolinas and Puerto Rico and Florida and California and in the City of Chicago — each and every day.
They show up to work so that we can go to sleep each night feeling protected and safe — even as their own families go to sleep each night worrying about what morning will bring.
Robert Kennedy Jr. said “Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills … Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.”
We pray that in the year ahead, each of us will find a way, just one way of returning the privilege we all have of living in this city, and in this country. That we find a way to give back to something bigger than ourselves, something that inspires us and stirs our souls to say — I can make a difference, I MUST make a difference. I can make my village, my city, my country a better place.
In gratitude for the service of those to our city and our country, we pray, oh Lord, as we say together, Amen.
