HONORING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. IN INTERFAITH SONG
Program to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It all started at a Women's Federation retreat at Tybee Island, Georgia, in 2012. It was there that I first heard about a project called Dreamfest in a report by Ms. Carolyn Sampson, WFWP North Carolina chairwoman. The Dreamfest is a three-day event held each year in North Carolina to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy.
When the WFWP co-founder, the late Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, was asked by a journalist, who, in his opinion, was the greatest American of the 20th century, he responded without hesitation, "Martin Luther King!" adding that it's because of his devotion to ending all forms of bigotry and injustice.
As the chairwoman of WFWP in Wheatland, California, I was inspired by this – and, I, too, came to have a dream of bringing different churches together for a choral festival to celebrate Dr. King's birthday. Three local churches that I contacted were very supportive of the idea, and an inaugural festival took place last year. It was a groundbreaking event in which, for the first time, a black Baptist preacher spoke in that particular Mormon church.
For the second annual MLK Choral Festival, held on Sunday, January 18, the roles were reversed, and a Mormon bishop was guest speaker in a black Baptist church. This year, the festival expanded to include poetry and praise dancing, while the number of participating congregations increased to five.
