Cancer center celebrates National Day of Prayer with program

ZION – The song “Sweet Hour of Prayer” kicked off City of Hope Cancer Center’s National Day of Prayer event May 1 in Zion as cancer patients, their families and staff looked on.

National Day of Prayer is an annual tradition when Americans of different faiths come together and pray for strength. It has been observed every year since 1952 on the first Thursday in the month of May.

“We need hope more than ever before. We are uniting in prayer to move mountains,” Chaplain Carl Williamson of City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago prayed aloud.

The prayer service in Zion was decorated by spiritual music presented by the talented students of Fourth Baptist Christian High School in Plymouth, Minnesota. The senior choir with more than 50 members raised their voices and their handbells from the second-floor balcony, delivering songs such as “Look at the Birds,” “Here I Am, Lord,” and “Beethoven No. 5″ in a 45-minute performance.

Williamson joined retired U.S. Navy Corpsman First Class Petty Officer Shawn Watson, Zion commissioner of police and fire rescue Mike McDowell and City of Hope Chicago staff in praying for families, the military, government leaders and the media.