This MLK Weekend marked the 6th anniversary of my participating in the interfaith Shabbat service that brings together The Temple and Ebenezer Baptist Church here in Atlanta. It’s an electrifying, meaningful, and important evening of interfaith prayer, music, and connection. I look forward to it every year because I help lead the band that accompanies the joint choirs (70 strong) and also have the unique joy of having 4 original compositions that are performed as part of the service.
This year’s MLK Shabbat service felt more urgent and important than ever before. There’s a clear need in our world for people of different faiths and backgrounds to come together to identify the core commitments that we share and to build relationships that will help us bring this core commitments to life. To that end, more than 350 people from both communities gathered for dinner and fellowship and at least 1,000 joined for the worship service that followed.
While my personal highlight continues to be the role that my music plays in the service, the undeniable highlight each and every year is Reverend Warnock’s sermon. This year his sermon was entitled, “Making Music in a Messed Up World.” He took as his point of departure, the passage from Exodus where Miriam leads the women in song after they’ve crossed the Red Sea. Through his captivating speaking style, he reminded us of the importance of creating beauty and living lives of purpose and meaning even as the world around sometimes feels like a “mistake.”
Here’s a picture of the band. As you can tell, we’re pretty excited to be making music together with two of the finest faith-based choirs in the world!
