Larry Greenfield to keynote MLK Interfaith Prayer Breakfast
Larry Greenfield, executive director of the Parliament of World Religions and executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago, is keynote speaker at the seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Interfaith Prayer Breakfast on Monday, Jan. 18.
His topic and this year's theme is "Staying Awake", inspired by King's homily on "Sleeping Through a Revolution."
The breakfast will be 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at D'Andrea Banquets, 4419 Route 14 in Crystal Lake. Local faith leaders will be joined by children and musicians from many traditions contributing to the program. The program will include a Call to Prayer and group prayer with participants including Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, various Christian traditions and New Thought. There will also be the reading of a winning essay(s) as it is often difficult to narrow it down to only one winner by a local middle school student addressing the theme: "Awake: How Do You Wish to See the World in 20 Years? Remember You Are An Active Participant in These Changes."
Greenfield is a regional judicatory of the American Baptist Churches U.S.A., and the theologian-in-residence for the Community Renewal Society, a progressive, faith-based organization in Chicago that works to eliminate race and class barriers and advocates for social and economic justice.
He received his B.D., M.A., and Ph.D. (in theology) from the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he subsequently taught and served as dean of students. Later he served as president of Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, where he also brought the Roman Catholic St. Bernard's Institute to the campus. He served as vice president for research at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics in Chicago, where his own research, funded by foundation grants, focused on multi-faith understandings of sexuality, science, and civil discourse.
He has served pastorates and campus ministries in Chicago and Ann Arbor. He is also the co-founder (and currently chairman of the board of directors) of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing. His continuing concentration on religion and justice receives expression in his bi-weekly essays (published locally and nationally) entitled "Thinking Theologically about the Common Good."
FaithBridge, a consortium of local faith communities, promotes cooperation and understanding among diverse religious groups in the Northwest collar counties. Tickets for this year's MLK Breakfast can be purchased any of the following: First Congregational Church of Crystal Lake, the Blue Lotus Temple in Woodstock, the McHenry County Jewish Congregation in Ridgefield, the Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, the Center for Spiritual Evolution in Crystal Lake, Bethany Luthern Church in Crystal Lake, the Department of Mission and Spiritual Care at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, and the American Muslim Community Organization in Algonquin. Tickets also will be available at the door and online at www.faithbridgeinterfaith.org.
FaithBridge events and activities include the Faith to Faith, Face to Face class, a Community Thanksgiving Service, the MLK Breakfast, and last year's Sounds of Faith performance. the supporting organizations include local faith communities in McHenry and Lake counties and the Department of Mission and Spiritual Care of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington.