Enlarge Coming together has helped Greater Providence and Mint Hill Baptist churches. (illustration)

Posted: January 30th, 2012 Ken Garfield

The hope of Xchange Sermons is that swapping pulpits is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

In this third year of the campaign to inspire reconciliation among people of different beliefs and backgrounds, there is mounting evidence that relationships are flourishing long past the last words of a sermon. Among the 60 participating congregations, Temple Beth El has established an annual, gospel-infused Sabbath service each January honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the cause of racial harmony. Piedmont Unitarian Universalist and Friendship Missionary Baptist churches are planning a partnership to include worship, fellowship, food and programs on healthy living, including nutrition, yoga and meditation. Click here to learn more about Xchange Sermons and how you can get involved. The program runs through May.

There is no more powerful illustration of an abiding friendship than the one that binds Greater Providence and Mint Hill Baptist churches. The former, on Milton Road, is predominantly African American. The latter, on Matthews-Mint Hill Road, is white. The story of their coming together rises above the racial divide that sparked the relationship.

Back in 1995, after a racially tinged act of violence sparked unrest in that part of Mecklenburg County, Revs. Fred Gibson of Greater Providence Baptist and Lee Proctor of Mint Hill Baptist met at a clergy breakfast meeting. Their conversation went from “Nice to meet you” to “Let’s start working together.” All these years later, the work continues on several fronts.

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Posted: January 19th, 2012 Ken Garfield

At first glance, it looked like any other Sunday morning in the pews at Providence United Methodist Church: A largely white congregation gathered to worship God – very friendly and slightly older, which is typical now for mainstream, moderate congregations in Charlotte and beyond.   

But what was different on the pulpit on this Sunday (Jan. 15) told the story of Xchange Sermons, and the story of anything-but-average houses of worship willing to take a stand for reconciliation. On this weekend honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Providence United Methodist welcomed the pastor and choir from St. Mark’s United Methodist, an African American congregation on Clanton Road. At the start of this third season of clergy of different beliefs, color and cultures swapping pulpits, the message of Rev. Paul Milton rang out in an extraordinary way: “Have you heard the voice of God?” he preached to 650 at the two morning services. “When God calls you by name, He will say, ‘Yes, you can.’ ”   

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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.

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Posted: January 8th, 2012 Amanda Pagliarini

On Jan. 3, Mayor Foxx proclaimed 2012 to be “The Year of Our Neighbors”. The team behind Souls of Our Neighbors (SOON) is treating the mayor's proclamation as a directive. 

The mayor made this announcement on the first day back to work in the new year, as over 300 people gathered to screen “Souls of Our Neighbors”, a documentary on affordable housing. With a 60% local increase in homeless families since 2009, the immediacy of this call to action seems justifiable.

The initiatives SOON has already outlined for the year show an authenticity to the program's name. Rather than look to local government or big corporations, the impetus is being placed on the community; starting with our congregations. (Click here for SOON's website.)

Launching in February,“Beyond Casseroles” will recruit congregations to donate the $3,600 cost to assign a social worker to assist a homeless family. Eight local agencies engaged in homelessness or affordable housing advocacy came together to form the “Beyond Casseroles” coalition. The name came from the hope that our congregations would move beyond food donation to actual real investments that will help to prevent and end homelessness.

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