Enlarge Photo by Meredith Jones of Meredith Jones Photography

Posted: January 15th, 2012 Ken Garfield

Xchange Sermons began Friday night (Jan. 13) as it should: Christians and Jews, blacks and whites, side by side at Temple Beth El, sharing prayers of brotherhood and songs of peace. Sharing, as Rev. Dennis Hall said to several hundred worshipers, a yearning for Shalom.

Peace.

A partnership of Crossroad Charlotte, Mecklenburg Ministries and Temple Beth El, Xchange Sermons offers clergy of all kinds the chance to preach to a congregation of a different faith, color, class or culture. Nearly 60 pastors, rabbis and imams seized the moment last year. This year, the program’s third, the hope is that many more of the region’s 700 houses of worship will participate. Visit Crossroadscharlotte.Org to get involved, and to read accounts of previous pulpit swaps.  The program runs from January to May – appropriately, given the hope that drives it, from winter to spring.

Just as appropriately, the kickoff came at Temple Beth El’s annual Sabbath service honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Reform Jewish congregation shared the celebration with Hall and the Children’s Praise Team from Briar Creek Community Church, an African American congregation.

Duke Divinity School student Kevin Vandiver, who directed the Freedom School last summer for 50 at-risk children at Shalom Park, took the pulpit to praise King and Moses and the true leader of the cause of justice, “The Lord our God.”

What sights and sounds of reconciliation…

• The Temple Beth El Adult Choir softly humming “We Shall Overcome” to the words of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
• Worshipers calling out the names of those in need in healing, worries and prayers that know no bounds of color, class or prejudice.
• The children of Briar Creek singing “Freedom,” many in the congregation clapping along, some standing, a mother and daughter dancing down the center aisle to their seats up front, all together giving expression to what Rabbi Judith Schindler called “the spirit, hope and dreams of this night.”

Xchange Sermons has begun. Many more nights, and mornings, lie ahead.

Ken Garfield is Director of Communications at Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte. Formerly religion editor of The Charlotte Observer, he has written extensively about Xchange Sermons in the past and will share stories from this year’s effort. Reach him at ken@mpumc.org.

Tweet

Previous Page