Murder spike spawns revival meeting in Jacksonville City Hall

Religious sentiments were high in Jacksonville City Hall Thursday. during a "day of healing" event.

Jacksonville officials have struggled with a spike in homicides in recent months, one that parallels the runup to March elections.

One City Councilman running for re-election hosted a “Day of Healing” in City Hall Thursday in response.

The hour-long event was full of prayers and hymns, with roughly 150 in the crowd singing, praying, and raising their hands rapturously as appropriate.

Councilman Reggie Gaffney, a Democrat representing District 7 in the city’s urban core, was not worried about potential conflation of church and state.

Gaffney presented the gathering as a way for faith leaders and the faithful of all races to get together and pray.

The prayers, however, were of an evangelical bent.

A document produced as the so-called “city prayer,” read in unison, posited that Jacksonville is “gripped by sin,” with “lives polluted by sexual sin.”

A speaker noted that the event was targeting “every sinner and backslider in the city,” adding that “Jacksonville is on the rise in Jesus’ name.”

Jacksonville on the Rise is the name of Mayor Lenny Curry‘s political committee. Curry and Gaffney generally align on issues; the Councilman’s brother works in the Mayor’s Office and was at the event Thursday.

A May runoff, especially if there is no action atop the ballot, will be attractive to Gaffney investors.

Gaffney cleared $100,000 raised in the week between February 9 and February 15, with a $4,000 haul pushing him into six figures.

The incumbent has roughly $80,000 on hand, with his closest competition in the money race (self-financing Solomon Olodape) with just a fourth of that cash-on-hand. Sharise Riley has roughly $15,000.

Gaffney’s district contains the Jacksonville Landing and the Sports Complex, two of the most closely watched properties in the city.

Olodape and staffers were on hand, in the back of the room with campaign materials, an indication that at least one opponent saw this as a campaign event for Gaffney.