Hermiston is joining a national movement combining the faith community with the law enforcement profession.

The city is hosting its first Faith & Blue Weekend on Saturday, Oct. 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center.

The family-friendly event aims celebrates the partnership between local law enforcement and the Hermiston community with the opportunity to get to know who works in public safety. The event includes food vendors, games, raffles, pumpkin painting, hayrides and more.

Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said he sees no problem with engaging churches and law enforcement in an event.

“As Hermiston strives to be an inclusive community, it’s important that we strengthen relationships between all residents,” he said. “Public safety officers take the job of protecting and serving the community very seriously, but sometimes that means simply enjoying time together to understand each other better.”

The event received a $3,000 grant from the Good Shepherd Health Foundation to buy Halloween bags to be distributed among the children and other giveaways to the attendees, according to Edmiston.

MovementForward Inc., an organization that promotes partnerships between local law enforcement and the faith community, created Faith & Blue Weekend in 2020. According to MovementForward Inc.’s website, the National Faith & Blue Weekend has grown to become the “nation’s largest collaborative community-police engagement initiative.”

But not all members of faith are on board with Faith & Blue Weekend.

Melissa Florer-Bixler, pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in North Carolina and author of “How to Have an Enemy” and “Fire by Night,” in 2020 wrote the article “Why I’m not participating in this weekend’s Faith and Blue event for churches and police,” in which she sees the event as an attempt to call for “churches to cushion the blow of police brutality — and to help clean up officers’ public image,” she wrote.

In her opinion, Faith and Blue gives the chance to share mission statements and eat hot dogs with the police, to play football and to ask questions about the impact of the group’s efforts on cities.

“But the crisis it purports to address will not be solved with stories or picnics. Solving it requires policy makers, churches and others to align themselves with a different vision for safety and community care, led by the communities most deeply impacted by the justice system,” she said.

“The problem in this moment is not a failure to see that there are both good and bad police officers. It is not that Black people aren’t familiar with their local beat cop. It is not that the call for abolition is too fast, too aggressive or too polarizing. The problem is our acceptance of a broken system,” she finalized her article.

The local event is a partnership among the Hermiston Faith-Based Advisory Committee, Hermiston Police Chaplain Program, local and regional law enforcement and the Hermiston Parks & Recreation Department.

“It is a fallacy to criticize the connection between churches and law enforcement,” said chaplain Terry Cummings, services coordinator at Hermiston Police Department. “We are getting together for one cause, and it doesn’t matter if you are religious or not to support the police.”

Cummings also is a member of Hermiston City’s Faith-Based Advisory Committee in which leaders of Hermiston’s faith community meet to advise the city council on areas where city goals cross paths with programs the local faith community offers.

“We invited over 70 churches to participate in the event from Hermiston, Stanfield, Irrigon, Umatilla, Boardman and Echo. Everybody is welcome,” he said.

Hermiston has played host to major faith-based events in the recent past. The Greater Hermiston CityFest with Andrew Palau in drew thousands of people Aug. 27, 2021, to Butte Park.

According to Dwellics.com, a specialized search engine, Hermiston’s primary religious affiliation is Protestant with 17,6% of 39.4% of the population who declared to be religious. Catholics are 15% and Mormons represent 6.3%. The other denominations are Hindu (0.3%), and non-Christian (0.2%).