Prayer service in Evans City highlights support for mental health
EVANS CITY — Lights flickering up on the hill in Evans City carried a message of support and hope Wednesday night for people who have faced mental health issues.
The "Candlelight Prayer Service of Hope“ was run by St. John’s United Church of Christ and the Butler County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Congregation members and local residents gathered to share a moment of contemplation and solidarity for victims of mental illness.
“The idea first is to bring about community awareness for mental health conditions and what people are going through,” said Lisa Griffin, pastor at St John’s United Church of Christ. “(We want) to just be a presence that people will kind of think about, and lift up those with mental health conditions.”
The event was held in conjunction with the national Mental Illness Awareness Week, a recognition observed during the first week of October each year since 1990. Candles were available for a $1 donation to support NAMI Butler County.
“We do these things to educate, and to increase awareness about mental illness and about the stigma,” said Donna Lamison, executive director of NAMI Butler County. “It’s an annual event, that happens every first full week of October.”
Griffin and ministers Brandon Johns, pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Gregg Hartung, commissioned ruling elder at Crestview United Presbyterian Church and Tom McMeekin, commissioned ruling elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church led the service.
The ministers lit candles and led the group in prayers in honor of the seven days of Mental Illness Awareness Week: truth, healing, understanding, hope, thankfulness, steadfast love, and support.
To Lamison, the event is a sign of the support that exists for people with mental illnesses in Butler County.
“I think it shows that there is a great amount of support out there, that there are many resources in Butler County and many various organizations that are involved in that and are supportive of talking about mental illness,” Lamison said. “This is just one of the ways that we do that.”
NAMI and the churches previously held the event in a remote format at the beginning of the pandemic, Griffin said. This year was the first iteration held outdoors.
“Our plan was (originally) to have it outside, and we just didn’t want to organize a community thing at that time, so we did an online service,” she said. “This year, we definitely wanted to do it outside.”
This year, St John’s United Church of Christ also put up an illuminated sign featuring the word “HOPE” in front of the church grounds.
“When it gets dark, you should be able to read the word HOPE in the lights,” Griffin said.
NAMI facilitators Julianna Hopkins and Mary Lindsay, who run family support group meetings for relatives of people experiencing mental health issues, said that mental health support and treatments have improved in the last ten years.
“I thought it was very nice what they were saying,” Lindsay said. “I’ve been in NAMI for 18 years now, and when I first came in, they did not have the medicines that they have now, and the understanding that they are coming along with. There’s always new things.”
Attendees at the event said the service brought a sense of community and awareness.
“The awareness needs to be brought to the public’s attention, and for people not to be stigmatized, so they are not suffering alone,” Cranberry resident Alan Keck said. “This is small, but still, it’s people who are aware there are problems out there, and that there are people suffering. It’s the support.”
