Pastor vernal and Narseary harris
“Sometimes death will rob you. Death will come into your life and cause so much anguish, so much pain.”
Pastor Vernal Harris, a National Evangelist minister for the past 60 years, founded the Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Rochester, NY and has led the Prince of Peace Temple in Buffalo, New York for 13 years. Drawing from personal experience with the passing of two sons to sickle cell anemia, Dr. Harris has become a strong advocate of hospice care, and often includes the topic in his sermons.
Dr. Harris is known for his community work with underprivileged youth, and has worked with the Mayor’s Office, the Chief of Police, and Jail Ministry and in hospitals throughout Rochester and Buffalo, New York.
Featured in NY Times article “A Racial Gap in Attitudes Toward Hospice Care”
Narseary Harris has been married to Pastor Dr. Vernal Harris for 48 years, and serves on many community outreach initiatives in the Christian ministry. She is the author of How Do I Go Forward Without You?, a memoir about the loss of her two sons to sickle cell anemia, featured in several radio interviews and book festivals. She devotes her time to The Prince of Peace Temple Church of God in Christ in Buffalo, New York, and leads workshops on grief and hospice care. She has helped to spearhead a movement in Western New York to dispel negative views about palliative care and enlisted the support of wives of black pastors, known as the First Ladies.
“In spite of how angry I was, how much I doubted God, how much I didn’t understand about what was going on in the back of my mind and in the deepest part of my heart and that little corner back there, I always knew that God was there.”