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Enthusiastic members of the Christian Cultural Center, a Brooklyn mega-church, filled St. Patrick’s Cathedral last week to hear their spiritual leader speak at an ecumenical prayer service to open the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
And the Rev. Dr. A.R. Bernard, who also is president of the Council of Churches of the City of New York, did not disappoint.
With Cardinal-designate Dolan presiding, and leaders of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches participating in the Jan. 18 service, Dr. Bernard’s homily called on all Christians to celebrate their shared belief in the “one body of Christ.”
Drawing on the Bible story of Jesus, who was a Jew, sharing a Samaritan woman’s drinking cup at a well, he said that Jesus made the point that he was willing to identify with the Samaritans, a reviled group of that era.
By sharing with her, Dr. Bernard said, Jesus set the direction for his followers that “there would no longer be judgment based upon race, religion, politics or denomination.”
There would be “one common denominator,” he said, “and that is our faith, our love for Jesus Christ.”
He asked his listeners, “Are you willing to drink from your brother’s cup, your sister’s cup? Are you willing to hear that person’s story and find that community in Jesus Christ?
“That makes us one,” Dr. Bernard said. “That’s the challenge.”
Cardinal-designate Dolan, greeting the congregation and his “colleagues in ministry” at the start of the service, called it a joy and an honor “to see you here this evening, welcoming you all to God’s house filled with God’s people.”
Other participating clergy included Bishop Mark S. Sisk of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; Bishop Sevastianos of Zela of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Primate Jonah Paffhausen of the Orthodox Church in America; the Rev. Dr. Robert A. Rimbo, bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; the Rev. James Stallings, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York; the Rev. Jon Norton, executive minister of the Synod of New York of the Reformed Church in America; and the Rev. Dr. Jimmy Seong G. Lim, executive director of the Council of Churches of the City of New York.
Catholic priests who participated included Father Robert J. Robbins, director of the archdiocesan Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and pastor of Holy Family, Manhattan; Father Timothy MacDonald, S.A., vicar general of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement; and Father James Loughran, S.A., director of the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an international ecumenical observance held annually from Jan. 18-25. Christian churches around the world traditionally hold services for the observance. The theme this year is taken from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which holds some 2,500 people, members of Dr. Bernard’s church—virtually all of them African-American—filled the pews, with most of them arriving more than an hour before the 6:30 p.m. event and waiting patiently for it to begin.
When Dr. Bernard was introduced, they gave him a sustained standing ovation, leading Father Robbins, the master of ceremonies, to quip, “I notice you didn’t clap for any Catholics.” The congregation responded to that with laughter and a round of applause, to which Father Robbins to ask, smiling, “Is that for me?”
Tiffany Bell of Elmont, a member of the Christian Cultural Center who was seated in a front pew, noted that the Center has 35,000 members. Like many people interviewed beforehand, she said that she came to support Dr. Bernard and to “hear the word.” Her mother, Shelly Wilson of Brooklyn, said she came because she knew Dr. Bernard would be preaching and because she had always wanted to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Vanessa Raoul, seated near them, said she works in midtown and often stops in at the cathedral. She too said Dr. Bernard was the draw for her. “I’m here to give support and to hear the word,” she said. “He’s a very good teacher.”
