The Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter sat next to a guest on Sunday and held her left hand in his as she wept during a musical performance at an overdose awareness service at his church in Patchogue.

The message of harm reduction delivered at the Patchogue Congregational Church deeply touched guest Dorothy Johnson, whose 28-year-old son, Max Greenfeld, died of an opioid overdose on September 1, 2011.

“It’s so important to bring the issue into the church,” Johnson said of overdose education and prevention. “The people who go to church pray and everything is fine, but a lot of them go to church because they have specific problems and they’re praying for something.”

For Johnson, of Blue Point, and other community members in attendance Sunday, that “something” was an opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Long Island residents annually for more than a decade. Data from the Suffolk County Health Department show that more than 450 people died of overdoses in the county alone last year.

Wolter said that while it was National Harm Reduction Justice Sunday for the United Church of Christ, not all congregations chose to participate. For him, the decision was a no-brainer.

“Wherever there is stigma, harm, injustice, oppression or discrimination, wherever that happens, I am there,” Wolter said, noting that he wants everyone who walks through the doors of the 19th-century church building to feel welcome and supported.

During the service, Wolter blessed Narcan, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, which the church distributed to worshipers. Wolter said he believes church buildings should be required to stock Narcan, just as they are required to stock fire extinguishers and automated external defibrillators. It’s time to end the stigma of drug abuse, he said.

“Narcan counteracts what is happening in your (body),” he explained to the audience, which consisted entirely of adults, many of them seniors.

“The effects will wear off,” Wolter added, “but not before we can get you to the hospital. It buys time. Do people have a problem buying time for someone who is dying?”

The pastor said the idea of ​​giving someone a second chance at life resonates with him. He lost his 6-year-old daughter, Maya, in an accident involving a drunk driver in 2005. Since becoming a pastor, Wolter said he has witnessed how the opioid epidemic affects many members of his church.

He told of a young man who helped out at the East Main Street Church soup kitchen and died of an overdose that same evening.

Sunday’s service included vocal and piano performances of songs written or popularized by Prince and Whitney Houston, two artists who died of drug overdoses.

“You can’t do drugs these days,” said Stephen Martin of Patchogue, another attendee at the service. “It’s killing everyone.”

Wolter gave those present the opportunity to say the name of a deceased person they knew. Johnson called out, “Maxwell.”

Johnson, a former nurse, said that after her son’s fatal overdose, opioid education became her personal mission. An organization she founded in her son’s name has worked with the towns of Islip and Brookhaven on initiatives to educate community members and advocate for change.

Johnson said she wished Narcan had been available when she lost her son, whom she described as a “wonderful human being.”

“A lot of this happens in communities like mine,” she said. “It’s all about mental health… At that moment, when my son was in that phase, it was about mental health.”

Johnson said she often feels like she has to be strong for others, but attending church services on Sunday has allowed her to “just let my spirit be.”

“Every church should have something like this today,” she said.

With Drew Scott

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.