Black Belt Ministerial Alliance holding Thanksgiving community service

Pastors of the Black Belt Ministerial Alliance are encouraging all the members of their congregations as well as other churches in the area to join together for a community-wide Thanksgiving service.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at Christian Chapel Baptist Church, 500 W. Decatur St. The church pastor, the Rev. Fred Moore, will deliver the sermon.

“One of the things we want to come out of this is to encourage the community to worship together,” said the Rev. Carl Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church and vice president of the Alliance.

For years the group of pastors has sponsored community services on the fifth Sundays of the months that have them. Over time, however, the number of people attending the services have dwindled.

“There is less excitement about coming together as in the past,” said Williams.

The Thanksgiving event is a way to remind people why the services are so important, he continued. They “bring us together as sister churches” and create unity.

The Rev. Lacornia Harris, president of the Alliance, said the pastors are “trying to get church members in this area to understand they serve one God,” not determined by what denomination or what race members belong to.

Harris said the non-denominational services will “amplify that we can worship in spirit and in truth.”

“We want to remind people that we need to take these opportunities to come together and worship as a city,” added Williams.

The dozen or so pastors who are members of the Alliance sponsor several other events during the year, including the Day of Prayer in May. During Thanksgiving and Christmas the group and members of their church help prepare and distribute hundreds of meals. The Coming Together Association sponsored the last Christmas dinner prepared at Kora’s Place and served 2,200, said Harris and Williams.