Mission Mississippi

2012 Mayors’ Prayer Luncheon

Mission Mississippi’s annual events are an integral part of sustaining and advancing the important work of Mission Mississippi. The goal of the Mayors’ Prayer Luncheon is to bring the community together across racial and denominational lines to pray for our mayors, local leaders and our cities. We get to experience a message of reconciliation, engage in challenging conversations, strengthen existing relationships and establish new relationships.

Please make plans to join us for the

2012 Mayors’ Prayer Luncheon

May 10, 2012 at 11:30am

Jackson Convention Complex

Myra Williams Ottewell, a native of Mississippi, will be our Guest Speaker to offer her encouraging and inspiring message of racial barriers being eclipsed. She is the producer of the film “Mississippi ReMixed,” a documentary about the current state of race relations in Mississippi.

Individual Tickets are $45
Event Sponsorships are available for $500, $1000, $2000

Please download and mail in this Mayors’ Prayer Luncheon Reservation Card

Purchase Tickets/Sponsorships (Click HERE)

2012 Governor’s Prayer Luncheon

Gov. Phil Bryant said he plans to continue activity with a Christian group promoting racial reconciliation. Mission Mississippi honored Bryant Friday, hosting the Governor’s Prayer Luncheon at the Jackson Convention Center.

Neddie Winters, president of Mission Mississippi, said Bryant, a white Republican, and Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree, a black Democrat, set a strong example in the governor’s race in 2011 by avoiding racial appeals. “I think you and Johnny DuPree did something across the state that I think our national leaders need to take note of,” Winters said. “There were two Christian men running for office that didn’t allow the politics of the moment to dictate what was coming out of their mouths.” Bryant said he and DuPree agreed to avoid attacks on each other in part because they both have been active in Mission Mississippi. Mission Mississippi hosts twice-a-week prayer breakfasts at different sites in and around Jackson, as well as weekly or monthly gatherings in other cities and towns around the state.

Bryant said he has hosted the group’s morning prayer meetings when he was auditor and lieutenant governor. “I hope once repairs are complete, we’ll be able to have some of these breakfasts at the (Governor’s) Mansion,” Bryant said. He and his wife, Deborah, have yet to move into the downtown Jackson structure because of repair work. Bryant, a Methodist, said the group’s effort to build deeper  relationships between the races was important to solving the state’s other problems as well. “If we continue to have lunch and to smile at each other across the table and don’t talk about it, things will never get solved,” Bryant said. The new governor said he still hoped to tour the state with DuPree to promote racial understanding. As the governor and his wife stood on the podium with eyes closed and hands
joined, the group offered prayers for his administration. “The answers that we need, drug stores don’t sell them, liquor stores don’t bottle them, dope pushers don’t push them, even my university doesn’t have them,” prayed Christopher Brown II, president of Alcorn State University. “We need godly answers.”

Jeff Amy
The Associated Press

October was Racial Reconciliation Month in Mississippi

Annually, the governor and the current municipalities have been requested by Mission Mississippi to proclaim October as Racial Reconciliation Month. The governor and most of the municipalities have done so by encouraging the citizens throughout the state to participate with Mission Mississippi and their local communities in celebrating. There have been joint worship services, pulpit exchanges, choir exchanges, combined choirs, Grace is Greater than Race rallies, joint picnics, individual visiting with each others homes, and having a meal together, prayer gathering to pray for Mission Mississippi, special collections for Mission Mississippi, special celebration programs and many other activities across racial and denominational lines.