LAURINBURG — A dozen Laurinburg area churches will combine efforts for a Community Thanksgiving Season Service on Sunday.
The program begins at 6 p.m. with a worship service and fellowship at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church at 600 West Church St.
Clergy from Scotland County area churches will lead various sections of the worship, a massed community choir will sing, and the Scotland High School Band Ensemble will play during the event, according to Duane Hix, interim pastor at Laurinburg Presbyterian who is helping organize the event.
Hix said the service follows a tradition of many years, but represents an expansion of participating churches to make it more reflective of the entire Laurinburg area.
“n light of tension among religious groups in the country and in the wake of last summer’s violence in cities like Charlottesville a group of local clergy gathered to strategize how to enhance cooperation across racial and religious lines,” Hix said.
Rev. Garland Pierce of Bright-Hopewell Baptist Church will offer the message for the evening, and worshippers will come forward during a time of offering to put canned goods and non-perishable items in large baskets.
The collection of food and cash gifts will re-supply the pantry at Church Community Services, which often runs low as the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons approach.
“Many congregations are aware that, as Martin Luther King, Jr often remarked, “Eleven o’clock on Sunday mornings are often the most segregated hour of the week,” Hix said .”In an effort to increase communication among area churches, the clergy group hopes to demonstrate that various congregations with different styles of worship and theology can come together in thanksgiving and praise of their common God.”
The host church and others will provide a wide variety of pies so all worshippers can enjoy the company of fellow Christians in the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Area churches participating include First Baptist of Laurinburg, St. Luke United Methodist, Westminster Presbyterian, Lutheran Church of the Living Word, Galilee United Methodist, Bright Hopewell Baptist, Nazareth Missionary Baptist, First Methodist in Laurinburg, Trinity Presbyterian, Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian, and St. Mary A.M.E. Zion.
“The community is warmly invited to the service,” Hix said.