Prompt 2: Write about a time you witnessed community solidarity or were inspired by or completed/attempted an act of kindness.
The Rev. Edward Harris was a two-year interim minister sent by the denominational office in Boston to the Unitarian Church of Evanston, where I was a member in the early nineties. Ed was a wonderful storyteller with a southern drawl, which worked well for the Sunday morning when he told us about his having led the funeral service for four little girls who were killed in the Birmingham church bombing three decades earlier.
Why was it that Ed was speaking in a Baptist church? Every other minister in town feared the Ku Klux Klan, who had issued an open warning to the city’s clergy not to participate. Ed stepped up.
The congregation perked up at that, and the two hundred or so people in the audience immediately went deadly silent. Ed described the scene and the Birmingham townsfolk who attended the funeral. He told us that when he returned home after the service, he mentioned to his wife Sandy that he hadn’t seen her in the audience and asked her where she had been. She told him, “I wasn’t there. I stayed home with the kids in case you were killed.”
There were audible gasps from the congregation followed by a few stifled sobs. I have never witnessed such a reaction before or since from so many people at one time in one place. Ed owned the room.
(Question to readers: Does the last four-word sentence weaken or strengthen my final point?)
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