THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512020567
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
As minister of Grove Baptist Church, the Rev. M.O. Marriner is usually thinking about Christmas during the first week of December.
No other time of the year is busier for the 33-year-old pastor and his congregation of more than 700. It is a time of joy and celebration.
But Christmas 1995 is different. As the season of peace and goodwill approaches, the city of Portsmouth has entered one of its darkest periods of violent crime.
The city's murder rate has soared, signaling a spiritual chasm that, Marriner believes, must be bridged.
To do this, Marriner has written his fellow clergymen, asking them to join forces to combat the Portsmouth crime problem and the city's criminal element.
He is urging all the city's church leaders and their congregations to join together at the city's 25-foot Christmas tree at Veteran's Riverfront Park.
The service will follow the city's Christmas Illumination Ceremony and the annual Christmas parade today at 7 p.m.
``In Portsmouth, there are some 200 churches,'' Marriner explained. ``With that kind of power, we have almost unlimited resources to help people. But we must join forces. This is not a Baptist or a Rev. Marriner thing.''
At the vigil, the church leaders will pray for peace in Portsmouth in 1996. It will be a non-denominational prayer, and will not be directly connected to the traditional Christmas celebration. People of all faiths will be included.
``We are looking at the prayer, not as a Christmas prayer, but as a humanitarian prayer of morality, values and self-respect,'' Marriner said.
Marriner sent the letters out after the weekend of Nov. 19 when the city broke the homicide record it set in 1992. Within a 48-hour period, a 20-year-old man and a 36-year-old man were shot to death. They were the 36th and 37th homicides of the year in Portsmouth.
One of the victims was black; the other white. It seemed to symbolize for Marriner the crime plague that has infected the city, and the reason it is not being solved.
``To be effective against crime, we are going to have to come together,'' said Marriner, who has been pastor at the church for six years. ``And we need to awaken the consciousness of our religious leaders that the problem is existing.''
In many ways, Marriner believes, the prayer vigil is the perfect complement to the Christmas season.
``It is good to celebrate,'' said Marriner, whose church on West Norfolk Road is one of the region's oldest black congregations, dating to 1844. ``But it is bad if you don't direct the celebration into avenues of hope.''
Hope, Marriner believes, is crucial, because young men in Portsmouth, especially young black men, are suffering a crisis of values that have twisted their understanding about what it takes to be a man.
They will do anything, Marriner believes, to obtain the material goods that, they think, proves their manhood. If they have to sell drugs, they will. If they have to shoot a gun, they will. If they have to kill somebody, they will.
It's because these young men have grown up without fathers and don't know what being a man is all about.
``We have a lot of men who still have a boy mentality,'' Marriner said. ``We have a lot of men who don't know how to be men. It's like giving somebody a job as a plumber without giving them any training.''
Marriner acknowledges the efforts being made by the city to fight crime. The police department's community policing program has helped, he believes. And Marriner is serving on a city commission to encourage cultural diversity, something that can help make the city's black population feel more a part of the mainstream.
But church leaders, he believes, are special in the way they can influence morality choices and value judgments. With the leadership of clergymen, Marriner believes, the city can reverse the spiritual decay.
Marriner, the father of three young boys, doesn't want the vigil to be limited to a one-time event, or even an annual event. He wants it to expand into a monthly meeting of the city's clergy, that will help them to work on the crime problem and other issues that effect the entire population.
``It is time for the churches to put our faith into action,'' Marriner said. ``Not only to solve the crime problem, but to mend the negative image that Portsmouth has.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Martin Smith-Rodden, The Virginian-Pilot
The Rev. M.O. Marriner, in the sanctuary of Grove Baptist Church...
by CNB