Tradition of worshipping together for 2 churches continues with new generation of pastors
They managed to break those barriers in what's long been called the most segregated hour of America – Sunday morning church services.
On Maundy Thursday, ahead of Easter weekend, a message of unity is delivered from the pulpit on this day of reflection on the sacrifice of Jesus and his commandment to love and serve others.
'We work toward the goal of becoming one as the Lord says, even as he and the father were one makes us one,' Pastor Larry Davidson, Jr. said.
Davidson isn't the only preacher doing the preaching at the services inside Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in New Market. Other pastors and their parishioners have made the pilgrimage to hold up a tradition that started with a pledge two preachers made to each other over 30 years ago.
'This is home. Hopewell is as much home to us as the building down there,' says Dr. Robby White.
He is Pastor Emeritus at Locust Grove Baptist Church. Six miles separate the two churches, but White remembers when he and Hopewell's former pastor Leroy Cole recognized it was more than miles keeping churches divided. So, they hatched a plan to bring their congregations together on several Sundays throughout the year and even on Maundy Thursday.
'Here on Sunday mornings, when Hopewell will come to Locust Grove or Locust Grove will come here. That's almost unheard of,' says White.
Black and white churches worshipping together in small southern towns like New Market was something that very few churches were doing in the early 1990s, says Pastor Davidson.
'Those two pastors were trailblazers really in the time that they did it. New Market has some history and so for them to do what they did it wasn't really popular perhaps at that time, but they saw the benefit even for a season like this to do what they did,' says Davidson.
Bridging a racial divide, Pastor White says, fosters a sense of unity for both the preachers and the people in the pews.
'When we worship together, there's an energy I enjoy. I walk away every time and say let's just do this every Sunday,' exclaims White.
Now a pastor emeritus he looks ahead to retirement while remembering the bond he helped form. He's happy to see that bond being kept firmly in place by a new generation of church leaders.
'Dr. Davidson, who is the pastor here now, has just picked up the mantle when Leroy retired and has continued that,' says White.
Pastor Davidson says the scripture tells us everything that divides goes away at the cross.
'It doesn't matter about nationality, doesn't matter about background, doesn't even matter the history of the sin. The sacredness of the heart and the cross is that place where all that stuff is washed away and dissolved,' he says.
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