WS Chronicle

Photo by Timothy Ramsey

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY 

THE CHRONICLE

A multi-faith prayer vigil was held this past Sunday in light of the presidential inauguration on Friday.  The vigil joined similar vigils organized around the country within the first 100 hours of the inauguration through a coalition of organizations, including Interfaith Power & Light and GreenFaith. The event was held at Parkway United Church of Christ.

The gathering included songs, sacred text, silence and prayers for the new administration.  It also included prayers for the courage and persistence of all citizens to continue to work for change in areas of climate change, racial justice, a sustainable energy policy, economic justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQIA rights and the dignity of all faith traditions.

The Rev. C. Anthony Jones, senior pastor of United Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church, led the congregation in a rendition of “This Little Light Of Mine.” He says events like this highlight the diversity and unity here in the city of Winston-Salem.

“More importantly, it shows that even though we may be of different faiths there are a lot more similarities than differences,” Jones said.  “When you look at a puzzle, if all the pieces

were the same, you would never get the puzzle together, so you have to have diversity to make it work. We no longer need to call it differences. We just need to simply call it diversity.”

Toure’ Marshall, pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem, delivered the call to action during the vigil.  He laid out a plan he thinks is needed in order to have a spiritual movement. It included praying, preparing the next generation, partnering with one another and play-ing because you must have joy in your life.

“Personally, this election made me realize that a movement for love and justice is a movement that must be sustained,” said Marshall.  “With the election of Barack Obama I think me and others made assumptions about how open and accepting our society has become.  But it’s no secret that with the rhetoric our current president used on his campaign brought up the question is everyone equal in this country.”

Craig Schaub, minister at Parkway United, said he received an invitation to hold the vigil from Interfaith Power & Light.  He said he was more than happy to hold the vigil at his church.

“We gathered people from various faith traditions to plan this and we wanted to lift up our concerns for climate change initially, Schaub said.  “We then immediately said we needed to make it broader than that.  It’s always important for people of faith and even people of no faith to come together to share a sense of the sacred in life, in community and see what happens.”

Schaub says he has a deep sense of gratitude for those who put the service together.  He says this is a stepping stone for everyone to build on moving forward as a multi-faith community in Forsyth County.