A group gathers for one of the first Community Prayer for Racial Justice events in September 2025.
Once a month for the past year, a group of Christians from across Durham gathers downtown near Major the Bull, the iconic bronze statue in the middle of the Bull City. Representing a collection of churches, the group prays for the city and asks God for His care and provision for the poor and most vulnerable among us.
The location, Frauke Schaefer said, symbolizes a shared purpose in praying for Durham. But it also offered her a wider view of the city.
Associate Pastor David Dunderdale leads the group in September 2025.
"I started looking at Durham through other participants' eyes," said Frauke, who has joined several of the prayer events. "Sometimes our perspectives were very similar. Sometimes others in the group noticed things I had not seen that way, and this enlarged my perspective of the city."
One year in, that simple practice still matters.
The Community Prayer for Racial Justice, organized by the Mt. Level Community Partnership for Racial Justice, has drawn members from eight churches and DurhamCares, a Blacknall ministry partner focused on caring for the people of Durham. After meeting for the first time in June 2025, the gathering became a regular monthly event that August, representing a unique, communal effort to ask for God's help. It may be only one hour each month, but that steady rhythm over the past year has been meaningful.
Erin Miller speaks while others listen and pray during a September 2025 community prayer.
"Coming together in prayer is an acknowledgment that our struggle is about powers and principalities, that our hope is much bigger than anything we can do," said Erin Miller, a Blacknall member who has attended several prayer events. "There are a lot of problems we pray about, and that's because racial justice is not something we can strategize our own way through."
Together, the group laments, confesses, and asks God to move in Durham on behalf of those most in need. Despite different denominations and backgrounds, everyone shares a common purpose.
"When we are praying together, we get to express our love for God, our love for others, and what we believe in an important way," Erin said.
For everyone, the setting is a key part of the experience, praying in public as pedestrians walk by and music drifts from passing cars. It creates opportunities to meet the very people they're praying for. Frauke recalls one Sunday when a person in need of help lingered at the edge of the prayer circle. After praying for him, Frauke said he appeared visibly touched by the love of the Lord.
"It touched this person," she said. "And it inspired me to live more fully into Christ's compassion through prayer and words that communicate that we notice and value others in our city."
Join in Prayer
Pray for racial justice and the Durham community on Sunday, Aug. 2. All are welcome.
Learn MoreFor Frauke, the gathering has also broadened how she sees Durham itself. While attending a conference in Greece last year, she and her husband met a couple from King's Park International Church and told them about the monthly prayer gathering. The next month, one of them showed up.
"It was one of those God things," she said.
Erin and Frauke returned to the same word when describing what has encouraged them to keep coming back throughout the gathering's first year: connection. Not just with God, but with people they otherwise might never know: different ages, races, traditions, and churches. Erin described one Sunday when she walked away after prayer ended, then circled the block on her own, still praying and unwilling to let the moment go.
"That one hour changes how I walk through the rest of the week," she said.