Public Forum

These last few days have been an exercize of a sort of civic religion. After worship on Sunday here at Church of Peace I drove to Kewanee, Illinois, for the installation of Rev. David Stroobridge as their new minister. Rev. Ken Kuenning, pastor emeritus of the Church of Peace accompanied me to this event.


Then yesterday morning I attended the 26th Annual Memorial tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island. The theme for this meeting was a quote from Dr. King, "We may have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." This was a good event with plenty of dignataries.

Last evening Nancy and I attended a prayer service at St Pius Roman Catholic Church here in Rock Island, for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It was good to sit with Tom and Carla McGreevey and Ed and Sue Johnson.

At all of these services I not only enjoyed the singing and the words spoken, but it was also important to illustrate the support of the Church of Peace for these good events that were taking place. We do support area ministers in their work, we do support the memory of Dr. King, and we do support Christian Unity. And the presence of people from our congregation illustrates this support.

Today the church staff and the staff of the Community Caring Conference decided to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama on television. We got a call from Channel 8 and they asked if we were watching and if they could come by a take some pictures and do some interviews. We said, "yes" and "yes." We will have to see if it makes the news. Our church supports taking part in public events as best we are able.