Local religious leaders will hold a meeting in Savannah next week to open dialogue about community healing, re-entry to life after incarceration and the impact of crime.
“We’re asking the faith community to come together,” the Rev. Thurmond N. Tillman said Friday morning in Wright Square while announcing a local implementation meeting for Healing Communities of Georgia at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Savannah Civic Center.
Healing Communities, an initiative launched in June, is led by the Governor’s Office of Transition, Support and Re-entry. The program utilizes congregations of various faiths collaborating to reduce recidivism.
The small gathering of local clergy members Friday morning to announce the meeting came a week after some of the same religious leaders met to publicly call for a 48-hour cease-fire to gun violence in the city.
“We want it to be a continuous cease-fire,” said Tillman, who was also at last week’s meeting. “We want calmer minds, calmer heads to prevail. This initiative is reaching out where one of the social hurts is.”
Healing Communities also aims to make areas safer. Tillman, pastor at First African Baptist Church on Montgomery Street, said many crimes are committed by people who have previously been incarcerated.
The Rev. George Lee III, local communication coordinator for the Office of Transition, Support and Re-entry, said the faith-based community is well poised to reach out to the community as a whole and initiate dialogue.
“It is through our practice of faith, whether it be Christian, Muslim or Jewish, that we’re able to understand that the process of healing is through love,” he said.
Lee, pastor at St. John Baptist Church — “The Mighty Fortress” on Hartridge Street, said the Rev. Harold Trulear, director of the national Healing Communities, will speak at the meeting Wednesday.
Another meeting on recidivism reduction is planned next month.
Tillman said he hopes many local clergy members attend Wednesday’s planning meeting.
“We care about each other,” he said. “As a community that’s what we’re called to do. And where better to start than the faith community that has that message going out — that everyone counts, every life is important.”
IF YOU GO
The Healing Communities of Georgia implementation meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Savannah Civic Center.