Jewish Community Relations Bureau|AJC and The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City sponsored the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Interfaith Service on behalf of the interfaith community of Greater Kansas City.
The service, held Jan. 8, was hosted by Community Christian Church and was livestreamed on YouTube and the SCLC-GKC Facebook page.
The Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould was the keynote speaker. Rev. Gould is the former executive director of Missouri Faith Voices, served the state of Missouri, and now serves as the senior strategist at the Faith in Action National Network, based in Washington, D.C.
Rev. Cassandra Wainright and Rev. Calvin Wainright (posthumously) were awarded the 2023 Evelyn Wasserstrom Award.
The service also included music from Hazzan Tahl Ben-Yehuda, Charles Williams, Millie Edwards, Mia Ramsey, The Kansas City Boys Choir and The Kansas City Girls Choir.
This annual service is an opportunity for the area’s Black and Jewish communities to come together, along with other interfaith community members in the Greater Kansas City region, to remember their shared history of fighting for justice. The service is intended to affirm commitment to honoring the legacy of Dr. King through continued work to make Kansas City a more equitable and just community.