Posted: January 22nd, 2010 Ken Garfield

Exchanging pulpits is fine on Sunday, two of the pastors participating in the Xchange Sermons believe. But it’s not nearly fine enough, they share, in a society in which fear and false assumptions can only be shattered by one thing.

“Building relationships,” says the Rev. Donnie Garris of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.

This Sunday (Jan. 24), Garris (right) will take another step in that direction as he preaches at 11 a.m. at predominantly white Sardis Baptist Church. At 10 a.m. that same morning, the Rev. Tim Moore of Sardis Baptist will command the pulpit at Garris’ African American congregation in the Grier Heights community off Randolph Road.

Garris, who has been preaching reconciliation to his 900-member congregation for 13 years, says he’ll pose a question Sunday – Am I My Brother’s Keeper? – and then answer it.

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Posted: January 20th, 2010 Ken Garfield

It is not just the pastors swapping pulpits who are taking a stand for reconciliation. In welcoming a preacher of a different color through Xchange Sermons, the Rev. Tom Stinson-Wesley of Pineville United Methodist believes his congregation and others are making the same powerful statement.

He said as much in the sermon he delivered Jan. 17 to the African-American congregation at C.N. Jenkins Memorial Presbyterian Church: Being the body of Christ means being a true democracy – “Where everyone is important,” he says. “Equally important.” On Jan. 24, the Rev. Eustacia Moffett Marshall of C.N. Jenkins will drive him the same point at the 9 and 11 a.m. services to the predominantly white congregation of Pineville United Methodist:

There is unity in diversity, or at least there should be.

“I really do place value on building bridges of relationships,” she says. “To reach out across the boundaries that can so easily divide us.”

Stinson-Wesley and Moffett Marshall have long devoted themselves to the cause of bringing people together. He’s been participating in pulpit exchanges for 16 years. His passion for building common ground goes beyond color. Before putting down church roots in North Carolina, he served a congregation in Sydney, Australia, and was English editor of the Center for Social Development in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Moffett Marshall, associate pastor whose focus at C.N. Jenkins, is on youth and young adults, says faith and outreach run in the family. Her husband, Toure’, pastors Hermon Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill. Raised in Oakland, her father, Mondre, is a jazz musician, and her mother, Diane Givens-Moffett, a Presbyterian pastor.

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Posted: January 20th, 2010 James Willamor

Hundreds crowd inside as a line waits to get in for the Levine Museum of the New South for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration on Jan. 18.

Children squish together on the floor while others sit on parents’ shoulders to watch the McCrorey YMCA Senior Drum and Dance Troupe take their seats in the main hall.

Suddenly, colors explode above the bare floors and white walls as hands met drumheads. Yellow and purple robes twirl. The troupe encourages the crowd to dance. Soon young and old, black and white join in.

The crowd sings along with Friendship Missionary Baptist's Youth Choir as Deejay Boyd leads the modern and traditional African-American gospel songs.

As I take photos, I think about Dr. King.

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Posted: January 20th, 2010 Meaghan Clark

On Wednesdays, Crossroads Charlotte Correspondent Meaghan Clark will give you a round-up of community-building news and events (click items for full stories):

1. Ways to send help to Haiti.

2.Goodwill Industries receives grant to train unemployed workers in green industries.

3. MLK Day inspires young and old to take action by paying tribute and paying it forward.

4. Mother and daughter turn their passion for pastries into a thriving business serving the African-American community.

5. The Boulevard, a shop in NoDa, makes room for organic beauty products from Beautorium. It’s the first foray into a bricks-and-mortar shopping experience from the Charlotte-based company.

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