Faith leaders and the head of the Baltimore Republican Party prayed for the remission of Gov. Larry Hogan's cancer at a 130-year-old church in Sandtown-Winchester on Thursday night, the first of two such services planned in the city this week.
Hogan announced Monday that he has an "aggressive" form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The Republican governor said he would remain in office as he undergoes an 18-week treatment program.
Kent Boles Jr., the city GOP chairman, thanked the roughly three dozen in attendance at Sharon Baptist Church, who he said "came together as one people, as God's people," regardless of differences in politics, race, creed or sexual orientation Thursday night.
Boles said he felt empathy for the governor's family, as both of his parents had been "touched by cancer." He prayed for unity and fellowship across the city and state and asked for God's grace and mercy on Hogan.
After relaying a short history of Sharon Baptist, the pastor, the Rev. Alfred C.D. Vaughn, emphasized the healing power of God. He spoke of his experience of having open-heart surgery. Vaughn said the church was founded more than a century ago in a horse stable.
"If you call upon Him, He will answer," Vaughn said, later adding, "We come to lift up our governor in prayer."
More than seven clergy members stood to read prayers at the lectern, and attendees nodded their heads and echoed the speakers' "Amens."
The second service is planned for 5 p.m. Friday at City Hall, to be held by West Baltimore community leaders and City Councilman William "Pete" Welch.
Sandtown-Winchester is the site of Freddie Gray's arrest in April and some of the subsequent unrest over his death from a spinal cord injury in police custody.
Hogan played basketball with residents during a visit to the poor, crime-ridden neighborhood two days after rioting over Gray's death. The governor, who received only 22 percent of the vote in heavily Democratic Baltimore, pledged his visit to Sandtown-Winchester would be the "beginning of a dialogue."
twitter.com/cmcampbell6