DENVER, Colo. – Trinity United Methodist Church in Denver, Colorado has a dream – a dream where one day people of all creeds and colors will be able to join hands and sing together.
On the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the house of worship – that’s usually filled with Christians – opened its doors for a special interfaith Shabbat service led by female Jewish rabbis like Caryn Aviv.
“I feel excitement that we can come together across our differences and build something that looks like the world we want to live in,” Aviv said.
This service is all about celebrating kindness and compassion toward all people while also standing in solidarity against anti-Semitism and addressing recent attacks on places of worship.
“There have been a couple shootings, most notably at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh,” Aviv said. “That taps into really old Jewish fears and anxieties about whether we belong in the united states and whether we’re safe.”
Organizers say this is just the second time in Trinity’s 160-year history that they’ve hosted an interfaith service.
“I think what’s so special is typically Christian churches do not open their doors other religious communities to host religious services,” said Senior Pastor Ken Brown of Trinity United Methodist Church. “What I believe we’re doing is creating a dialogue.”
It's an interfaith dialogue that Brown believes all denominations can benefit from.
“We send a message to the world that peace is a pathway and it’s a pathway that you pursue 365 days a year not simply after you have tragic attacks of violence on places of worship,” he said.
Brown added whether Christian or Jewish, church or synagogue, the time is always right to do what is right.
And in the words on Dr. King, let freedom ring from this church near the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado to across the world.
