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Prayer Service to End Modern Slavery
Special to The Truth
The Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition and STOP! (Stop
Trafficking of Persons), two local education and advocacy
groups for victims of human trafficking, are planning a
prayer service for 7 p.m., January 15, 2015 at Corpus
Christi University Parish on Dorr Street in west Toledo.
This third annual inter-faith prayer service is being
conducted as part of National Slavery and Human Trafficking
Prevention Month. Participants will include Cantor Amanda
Winter, The Temple, Congregation Shomer Emunim, Deacon John
Algee, St. Michael and St. John the Baptist parishes, Sister
Pat Gardner, Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, and Abdel-Wahab
Soliman, The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.
The prayer service is a spiritual way to address the issue
of human trafficking and the theme is "Anointed to Proclaim
Freedom for Those Held Captive." The service will begin with
background and facts about human trafficking-it is the third
largest criminal activity in the world generating $32
billion in revenue each year and between 14,000 and 17,000
people are trafficked in the United States annually with 80%
involving sexual exploitation.
There will be meditations and readings from the bible, the
Quran, Buddhism, the U.S. Constitution, and Dr. Martin
Luther King, among others. It will end with the prayer "O
God of All the Forsaken and Lost."
Pope Francis and several of the world's religious leaders
have joined together to end human slavery, focusing on the
tens of millions of victims around the world.
"The physical, economic, sexual and psychological
exploitation of men and women, boys and girls, is chaining
millions to inhumanity and humiliations," said Pope Francis
at an early December meeting of religious leaders at the
Vatican. "We will do all in our power, within our faith
communities and beyond, to end modern slavery by 2020."
The Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition (LCHTC) was
formed in 2009 to respond to human trafficking. It is made
up of health care, social service, law enforcement,
government agencies, churches, citizens and victims of human
trafficking. Its goal is to develop appropriate prevention
strategies and intervention responses to victims of
trafficking.
STOP! was formed in 2006 by the Sisters of four women's
religious communities in greater Toledo-the Sylvania and
Tiffin Franciscans, the Notre Dame and Ursuline Sisters-as
part of their commitment to nonviolence and respect for the
inherent dignity of each person.
Corpus Christi University Parish is located at 2955 Dorr
Street, Toledo, between Secor and N. Douglas Roads,
immediately south of the main campus of the University of
Toledo.
For more information about this prayer service, contact
Laura Draheim, Co-Chair of the LCHTC Community Education,
Prevention and Marketing Committee, 419-475-1720 or
ldraheim3434@att.net, or
Sylvania Franciscan Sister Geraldine Nowak, a member of
STOP!, at 419-517-8973 or
gnowak@sistersosf.org.
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