BALTIMORE — The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock invited those attending
an interfaith/ecumenical prayer service April 12 at the Cathedral of Mary Our
Queen in Baltimore to join hands with those near them.
As all in the nearly full cathedral did so, Baltimore Archbishop
William E. Lori joined hands with Mayor Catherine Pugh and Darryl DeSouza, the
city's police commissioner, while they were seated in the sanctuary.
Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, preaches at the Cathedral of St. Mary Our Queen in Baltimore April 13. KEVIN J. PARKS | CR MEDIA
Rev. Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer
Baptist Church, invited the congregation to imagine a great multitude of men
and women, boys and girls from the four corners of the earth. "They looked
into each other's eyes and they were not afraid."
The preacher said he asked one of those in this vision what was
happening.
"He said, 'It is the kingdom of God imbued with love and
justice,' and so I asked, 'Where is this?'" Rev. Warnock said.
"And he answered, 'It exists already in the hearts of those
who have the courage to believe and struggle.' And so I asked, 'When is this?'
And he answered, 'When we learned the simple art of loving each other as
sisters and brothers.'
"And so, O God, give us wisdom, give us courage for the
living of these days, for the facing of this hour as we bear witness to your
kingdom," he prayed. "O God, who loves us into freedom and frees us
into loving, to you we offer this prayer."
Rev. Warnock, spiritual successor to the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. — and his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., known as "Daddy
King" — was invited by Archbishop Lori to be the guest preacher for a
prayer service to commemorate the April 4, 1968, assassination of Rev. King Jr.
Rev. Warnock is only the fifth senior pastor of Atlanta's
Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was founded in 1886. He has been senior pastor
since 2005. He spent five years in Baltimore at Douglas Memorial Community
Church, his first senior pastorate.
In his introduction for the prayer service, Archbishop Lori said
the goal for the evening was to "remember that tragic day 50 years ago
when we lost one of the greatest leaders our nation has ever produced: Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr."
"And though we come together on this anniversary of his
death, it is his life and his legacy that we come together to recall and to
reflect on and to embrace," he said.
"Fifty years after the death of his earthly body, his spirit
and his words and his example continue to be present among us. And what a true
tragedy it would be if we ever stop opening our hearts and our minds to the
teachings he shared with us, not only in words but in actions," the archbishop
added.
He also noted that April 12 was the third anniversary of the
arrest of Freddie Gray Jr., whose death from injuries suffered in police
custody touched off days of unrest in the city.
"We do more than pray for our beloved city and for each
other," Archbishop Lori said. "As we saw three years ago in
communities all over the city, people helped each other, neighbors of every
race and creed helped their fellow neighbor. And that is the story of Baltimore
that you won't see on the news."
Catholic and other faith leaders and Baltimore officials and
civic leaders, including those at the service, will keep telling that story
"until hope conquers fear and until people begin to think of Baltimore as
a city of neighborhoods and not a city of violence," Archbishop Lori said
to applause.
Rev. Warnock also reflected on the Freddie Gray anniversary,
noting that Gray lost his life in 2015, "but I submit to you, Baltimore,
that as tragic as those incidents are, they are tragic and predictable. Because
while we abhor police brutality, and Dr. King was talking about police
brutality — did you know that? — in 1963."
He quoted Rev. King from his "I Have a Dream" speech:
"Some are asking, 'When will we be satisfied?' We will not be satisfied as
long as the Negro is the victim. As long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police brutality."
Rev. King "recognized that there was racial bias and he was
honest about it. Translation: It was the 1963 version of 'Black Lives
Matter,'" Rev. Warnock said. "Don't get mad at me and don't get mad
when folks say, 'Black lives matter.' That's part of what it means to be an
oppressed people. All lives matter, of course. And that's the point."
He called Rev. King a truth-teller. "He was the best kind of
patriot because he loved the country enough to tell the country the
truth."
And the country needs more of that today, he said in his sermon.
"Now is the time for truth-telling. Now is it time to call the nation to
be the best. To stand tall with moral excellence. To push past the predictable
partisan arguments of the public square and catch a glimpse of the vision of a
new heaven and a new earth.
"It's bigger than Republican politics, bigger than
Democratic politics," he added. "It is God's vision of a new heaven and
new earth. And whenever people of faith catch a vision of what God intends, it
makes folks on the right and the left uncomfortable."
Before the prayer service, in an interview with the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan news outlet,
he said the country needs more of the nonviolent civil disobedience espoused by
Rev. King, and which Archbishop Lori promoted in a pastoral letter released in
February, "The Enduring Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Principles
of Nonviolence."
Rev. Warnock said, "We are living in an evil time. The
country is deeply divided, and the church is strangely silent at a time when we
need — sorely need — a voice of faith and moral courage."
He also touched on themes of criminal justice and prisons,
poverty, and healing America in the 45-minute sermon, which was punctuated by
applause and "Amens" from the congregation.
Faith traditions represented at the prayer service included
Muslim, Jewish, Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran and Catholic. Civic leaders,
including Pugh, DeSousa and others from government, participated.
A combined gospel choir, led by Kenyatta Hardison, music director
at Cardinal Shehan School, led the congregation in song. Her school's choir,
now famous for its viral video and appearances on local and national TV, sang
its rendition of Andra Day's "Rise Up."
Gunty is associate publisher/editor of Catholic Review
Media, the media arm of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.