Churches Coming Together, an interdenominational spiritual coalition of local clergy and lay leaders, holds its regular quarterly service May 31st, 5:00 p.m. at Howard Chapel on the Barton College campus in Wilson. Rev. John Thomas, Pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church of Wilson, will deliver a sermon entitled “Compel Them to Come.” Calvary Presbyterian Choir, under the leadership of Ms. Faye Williams, will perform two musical selections, to the accompaniment of Mr. Bill Myers. Four other pastors from the Wilson area will lead prayer and liturgy. A reception will follow the service.

Churches Coming Together seeks to celebrate and draw inspiration from a core of common beliefs and values from various faith traditions, and to overcome differences that separate people of faith by race, ethnicity, and class. It has held five services to date. In the inaugural service, Rev. Tuck Taylor-Loveland’s sermon stressed the theme of Christian unity. At the second service, Rev. Maurice Barnes challenged worshippers to reach out into the local and global community, to become “the body of Christ in the world.” In August of 2014, Rev. Paul Dunham, pastor of Winstead United Methodist Church of Wilson, called on worshippers to pray for healing and deliverance from forces that threaten our community fabric. In November of 2014, Rev. Ernestine McGee, pastor of Faith Temple United Holy Church, preached on the power of faithful obedience to “The Unseen and Silent God.” And in the most recent service, held at St. John AME Zion Church, Rev. Jamie Eubanks, Barton College Chaplain, emphasized that the faithful are presented with choices that can bring about the kingdom of God.

At the May 31 service, Churches Coming Together will offer opportunities for reconciliation in our community through a program called “Living the Word: Churches Coming Together for Justice,” which is sponsored by the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. For more information, contact Rev. Tuck Taylor tucktaylor@live.com

This site explores the promise of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that it is emerging “on earth as it is in heaven.” It grows from the struggles of those oppressed and imprisoned by systems whose ethics are built on the profit motive. For Jesus comes, brothers and sisters, in the voices of young black men gunned down by agents of the empire, and the poor brought before modern day Pilates, clad in orange jumpsuits, hands cuffed behind their backs. And it calls us stand with our brothers and sisters on the streets and in the halls of power, no less in Raleigh and Washington than in Jerusalem. And those voices cry out, “forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”