Area churches focus on unity for King holiday

Several churches in Cape Girardeau are celebrating their cultural diversity by uniting in one voice against racism and unresolved feelings in the community.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at 7 p.m. Monday at Livingway Foursquare Church, 1224 Bloomfield Road, is an ecumenical event sponsored by the Downtown Council of Churches, the Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance and Southeast Missouri State University.

Another community service, "Building a Community, Shaping a New Generation," will be at 7 p.m. at St. James AME Church, 516 North St. It is sponsored in part by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Both services are equally important, said the Rev. Bob Towner, rector of Christ Episcopal Church and president of the Downtown Council, and should draw adequate crowds.

The service at Livingway Foursquare is designed to celebrate King's life but is also a service of Christian unity, in conjunction with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed Jan. 18 to 25.

And it's the issue of unity that the churches are trying to emphasize, particularly when it comes to matters of education.

Towner said organizers wanted to "gather mothers and fathers of the black and white communities together to talk about the racial problems in the schools."

Though Cape Girardeau's public schools have been integrated for 50 years, racial integration is a problem still plaguing Cape Girardeau. "We're talking about taking down a 50-year-old block in education and integration in this community," Towner said.

Church leaders have been praying about this issue for months.

And prayer is an important part of reconciliation, said the Rev. Dr. William Bird, pastor of Greater Dimension Church of God in Christ.

His congregation works diligently at trying to build bridges among diverse people and break down stereotypes and barriers, he said. "We are deliberate about causing people to come together," Bird said.

Staying separated "is not God's way of doing things," the black minister said.

Bird also serves on the Cape Girardeau school board, so the issue of racial reconciliation and integration in education is of particular importance to him. "We have to deal with it now to help bring about reconciliation and a healing," he said.

Perhaps it's the history of the community that has bearing on how relationships have not formed as they should, he said.

"There is a lot of bitterness and that's why people aren't getting along or that we haven't progressed as we should. It's an issue back in the past that was not resolved."

Cape Girardeau operated a schools for both black and white children in the early 1950s. After the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision on school integration, Cape Girardeau closed the district's black school without hiring any of its teachers. Since then, the district has tried to recruit minority teachers but has had limited success.

"This is the iniquities of our fathers," Bird said.

And while some might say they weren't responsible for creating the problems, it is the community's responsibility to address and correct the issue now, Towner said.

Everyone is living with the consequences of these past actions, he said. The service is "sort of an act of confession and an effort at forgiveness."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

Today's events

8 a.m.: Southeast Missouri State University's Martin Luther King Jr. memorial breakfast at the Show Me Center. Speaker is state Sen. Maida Coleman, who was born in Sikeston, Mo. She represents the 5th District, which includes part of St. Louis city, and is an assistant Democratic floor leader in the Missouri Senate.

Noon: "Building a Community, Shaping a New Generation" Martin Luther King Jr. humanitarian benefit at Osage Community Centre. Mary Kasten, a former state representative, and the Rev. Brent Mustoe, district supervisor for the United Methodist Church, will speak.

3 p.m.: "Building a Community, Shaping a New Generation" youth gala at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park. The event features oratorical and musical tributes to King.

7 p.m.: "Building a Community, Shaping a New Generation" community service, St. James AME Church, 516 North St.

7 p.m.: Downtown Council of Churches community celebration at Livingway Foursquare Church, 1224 Bloomfield Road. The Rev. Dr. William Bird will speak.