The night before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Brittany Course went to church.
On Jan. 18, she sat in a wooden pew in the middle of Carter Metropolitan CME Church’s sanctuary as she listened to worship music and prayers sung in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
Being surrounded by people of different faiths, racial and ethnic backgrounds all worshipping in one space made Course think to herself: “This is what heaven is going to look like.”
“It’s all of us together, worshiping God together in one spirit and one faith,” Course said. “And so that’s what really draws me here every time, because it’s a beautiful sight to see this, like this is a glimpse of heaven.”
She was among several at the second annual Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Service held at the southeast Fort Worth church — which is part of the Christian Methodist Episcopal faith, a historically African-American religious denomination branching from Wesleyan Methodism. The service was organized by the clergy-based group known as the Faith and Justice Coalition of Tarrant County.
The group is co-led by Rev. Dr. Michael Bell of Greater St. Stephen First Church and Rev. Ryon Price of Broadway Baptist Church.
The gathering comes at a time where it is “critical that diverse people come together” amid division, Price said in opening the service.
He highlighted some of the coalition’s efforts, such as urging officials to condemn a former GOP chair’s anti-Muslim social media posts, hosting community forums on Tarrant County’s redistricting process and leading marches during the “No Kings” and anti-ICE protests.
“Now is an urgent time, and it is a moment where people of faith everywhere must be fierce, must be courageous, must stand up, must give voice, and must be the people that we are called to be,” Price said.
The service included a section called “prayers of hope” from Rabbi Brian Zimmerman of Beth-El Congregation, a reform Jewish synagogue in Fort Worth. Anyra Cano and her husband Rev. Dr. Carlos Valencia of Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo offered a prayer in both Spanish and English. Rev. Dr. Stephen Cady, president of Brite Divinity School, also shared a prayer during the gathering.
“Remind us of the gift that it is to be together right now in this moment. And when we walk out of here this evening, help this to matter. Help it to not end here,” Cady said in prayer.
The theme for Sunday’s service was “the fierce urgency of now,” a phrase in King’s “I have a Dream” speech that served as a call to advocate for civil rights.
Stacey Floyd-Thomas, a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, returned to Fort Worth on Sunday evening as the event’s keynote speaker. In 2002, Floyd-Thomas and her husband were faculty members at Brite Divinity School. She worked at Brite for six years and founded its Black Church Studies program.
To remember King rightfully is “not to sentimentalize him but to take responsibility for the unfinished work his life leaves in our hands,” Floyd-Thomas said from the pulpit.
In her sermon, Floyd-Thomas urged attendees to take action and not wait for change. She spoke of the dangers of delaying justice and the consequences of inaction.
“King understood that injustice anywhere was a threat to injustice everywhere,” Floyd-Thomas said. “Not because he was sentimental but because he was realistic. That is why the fierce urgency of now is not merely local. It is global.”
Course, 36, who has attended the church since 2017, said she plans to stay civically engaged. While she may not be participating in marches, she plans to find her “piece of the puzzle” by writing letters or sitting in on local government meetings.
“Some of us are not the loud speakers. Some of us are the mail writers and the letter stuffers, and we go get the water and the snacks for those that are protesting,” Course said. “But there was a Coretta to a Martin.”
In the audience was Alfie Wines. Attending the service was in some ways a “homecoming.” Wines, 76, first attended Carter Metropolitan in 1978.
She taught an adult Sunday school class and played piano for the youth choir before she became an ordained Methodist minister. Events like these emphasize a need to respect one another and honor the humanity of every person, Wines said. But it’s going to take everyone to get more civically engaged, she added.
“Don’t stop believing, and start doing your part,” Wines said. “Whatever your part is, do your part, and then we all put our parts together. Then that can happen.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
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