At prayer service, pastor encourages Buscher, elected officials to 'be just in your dealings'

Misty Buscher said her friendship with the Rev. John Titus goes back more than two decades, when he was formerly the pastor at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, her home parish.

The Mayor-Elect said it was important the Inauguration Day Friday started with an ecumenical service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception led by Titus, who now heads parishes in Mattoon and Sullivan.

"It was amazing to have him here because he was a very big part of my life," Buscher said of Titus. "My husband (Mike) is my rock, and Father Titus married (Mike) and me, so when it was time to plan the prayer service, the date today was based on his availability and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White's availability to speak and be at these events."

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The prayer service kicked off a day of events which included the Inauguration at the Bank of Springfield Center and a public reception at the Crowne Plaza.

Along with Buscher, Colleen Redpath Feger, Buscher's successor as Treasurer, city Clerk Frank Lesko and alderpersons of the city's 10 wards were due to be sworn in by White.

Buscher, 52, becomes the city's second female mayor, following Karen Hasara, who served from 1995 to 2003.

Buscher served two terms as city Treasurer.

Before the service, Titus recalled not only marrying the Buschers, but baptizing the Mayor-Elect and her daughter, Courtney, who now lives in Los Angeles.

Titus saw the prayer service as "an opportunity to find common ground if we want to move forward as a community as a people of faith. Our nation, and the development and the history of our own state, is intimately tied up with people of faith and the good work that can be done when we cooperate."

The Rev. Silas Johnson, pastor of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, reading a selection from the Old Testament book of Micah, asked Buscher, and all of the elected officials being sworn in, what God requires of them.

Johnson encouraged them to "be just in all of your dealings."

Rev. Cindy Lash, a pastor at West Side Christian Church, said a selection of Scripture, the Epistle to the Philippians, was personally selected by Buscher.

In the passage, Paul the Apostle and Timothy remind the members of the early church in Philippi to "value others above yourselves" and to look after "the interests of the others."

"(The passage) contains an appeal to each of us to adapt the mind of Christ into daily living and habits," Lash said. "Unless we serve one another in life, like Christ modeled on earth, we will surely miss the mark. These are powerful words from Philippians, and I pray they will serve as a benchmark to a healthy and to a successful term in office for each one of you."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: An ecumenical prayer service kicked off Inauguration Day in Springfield IL