Posted: February 24th, 2010 Ken Garfield

The Rev. Gregory Moss Sr. of Saint Paul Baptist Church believes that in working to reconcile the community across the great divides of race and religion, we shouldn’t dwell on our differences.

The cause of reconciliation should first celebrate what unites us. “I just believe that we all have one thing in common – God,” says Moss (right), correcting himself in the middle of an impromptu sermon before delivering his honest-to-goodness sermon this Sunday morning. “Two things – God and our humanity.”

Moss, then, comes to Xchange Sermons with a message built on hope, and a long track record of involvement in the spiritual, social and political life of the city.

This Sunday (Feb. 28) at 11 a.m., he’ll preach at Myers Park Baptist Church on “The Mess We’re In” – one of the messes being the economic crisis that touches all people regardless of color.  This, he believes, is one more challenge that calls us to work together. Evidence of that is in the dozens of job support groups started this past year by a wide variety of congregations, many working with the city’s interfaith coalition, Mecklenburg Ministries. 

As spiritual leader of the 5,000-member congregation in the Belmont community for more than a decade, Moss has been one of the faith community’s most outspoken pastors. He has been deeply involved in H.E.L.P. (Helping Empower Local People), a grassroots neighborhood action coalition that seizes on such issues as education, housing and public safety.

Moss' involvement in Xchange Sermons pairs him with a pastor and congregation equally progressive and aggressive in community outreach. While Moss preaches Sunday at Myers Park Baptist Church, the Rev. H. Stephen Shoemaker (right) of Myers Park Baptist will deliver the 10:30 a.m. sermon at Saint Paul.

  In his nearly 11 years at Myers Park Baptist, Shoemaker has built on the congregation’s well-deserved legacy of activism, and for embracing all sorts of faith partnerships. Shoemaker says his 2,000-member church has held pulpit exchanges with First Baptist Church-West, Temple Beth El and other houses of worship. Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth El, one of the driving forces behind Xchange Sermons, and Shoemaker have brought their congregations together for many undertakings, and has welcomed members of Charlotte’s Muslim community to share in the faith and fellowship.

  In a sense, then, this citywide effort to stir clergy to exchange pulpits is business as usual for Shoemaker. But because Xchange Sermons is bringing in to the fold new congregations and new clergy – some of whom are taking such a step for the first time – Shoemaker believes it’s making a powerful statement. And because we are willing to reach across the divide in these relatively harmonious times, he says, this community will be better able to reach out to each other if and when times get tough.

   Says Shoemaker: ‘The fact that so many religious communities are doing it at the same time feels like an important step.”

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Ken Garfield, former religion editor of The Observer, is director of communications at Myers Park United Methodist Church. He often writes on faith and values for Charlotte Magazine and other forums, and is profiling clergy participating in the Xchange Sermons.

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