Billboards around Dayton, Ohio, advertise the prayer gatherings hosted by Christ Episcopal Church during the upcoming NATO Parliamentary Assembly that is taking place May 22–26 in the city. Photo: Christ Church Facebook
[Episcopal News Service] Christ Episcopal Church in Dayton, Ohio, will host “Sanctuary for Peace” prayer gatherings during the May 22–26 session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly taking place in the city’s downtown.
The assembly will bring together more than 300 delegates from governing bodies — parliaments or congresses — of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 32 member states. More than 1,000 people are expected to be in Dayton for the event, which is the first time the assembly’s spring session has taken place in the United States.
“In recent months, there has been a buzz in the city about this historic session,” Emily Joyce, the church’s director of communication and parish life, told Episcopal News Service.
But it also created a problem.
The church is in the middle of the NATO Village, a secure meeting area where streets are closed and foot-traffic is limited.
“We pride ourselves on being a downtown church,” Joyce said. “Our doors are open every day. We need to make sure we stay open, but we wondered, what we can be doing?” The answer was to open the church to the community from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day that the assembly is in session, with a map marking where the area can be accessed by pedestrians.
The church will offer prayers twice a day, with community faith partners helping in the afternoon and Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer at night.
Southern Ohio Bishop Kristin White said in a letter posted on the diocesan website that she will lead the 1 p.m. prayers on May 24.
At other times the church will offer prayer resources and stations, as well as music and art projects “to help guests engage in prayer and peaceful contemplation.”
In her letter, White applauded the church’s efforts during the international event. “As those who embody the Gospel of Jesus Christ and share in God’s transformation of our communities, we join Christ Church in their witness for peace, friendship and love of neighbor: our neighbors who live just across the street and our neighbors who live across oceans,” she said, encouraging people either to participate in person or to pray from home.
Dayton was chosen to host this meeting because this year marks the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended more than three years of war between Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. That conflict killed more than 200,000 people and forced more than 2 million to flee their homes. The diplomatic meetings that led to the accords took place at Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
White said she hopes that the history of these accords plays a role in the upcoming gathering, writing, “I pray that this legacy of peace flows through the deliberations and actions taken by the assembly while they are in our midst.”
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly first took place in 1955 to serve as a link between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – which was created in 1949 – and its member nations’ parliaments. Rep. Michael Turner, a member of Congress from Ohio, will lead the bipartisan, 13-member delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives. Other delegates represent districts in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The 2024 spring session took place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.