Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church, a multicultural community of faith on Madison’s North Side, will host two days of celebrations for MLK Day with a jazz concert and worship as it looks to honor Dr. King’s legacy and call on the community to rise up in trying times.
The MLK Jesus’ Dream Weekend, the annual celebration at Sherman Church, 3705 N. Sherman Ave., is now in its sixth year. The celebration will span two days, Jan. 17-18, with a free jazz concert featuring the David Hart Trio and worship the following day. Sherman Church looks to bring the community together to build the “beloved community,” a concept pictured by Dr. King that brings people from all walks of life where all are respected, cared for and treated as equals.
“We’re going to laugh, cry and heal and use it as a bond for all of the pain that we have been feeling for the last 13, 14, 15 months,” said David Hart, reverend at Sherman Church. “We’re going to make a specific call to action and activate people, drop complacency.”
The call to action is to build the beloved community and lean on each other in the wake of multiple political happenings that have affected many across the country.
Rev. Hart points to the erosion of rights, loss of funding, economic difficulties and a large increase in need he’s seen as membership at Sherman Church grew by 40% over the past year.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
“I just feel like we’re in a place where if we don’t do something on a more active level, we may not have a community in the future for our children and for the folks who come after us,” Rev. Hart said. “So the call to action is going to be ensuring that we make the most of our voting rights, that we support ourselves and candidates that are going to impact these midterm elections. We’re going to support our local businesses.”
Part of the call to action is to support the community at large in a “multi-pronged approach,” Rev. Hart said. The call hopes to get people to support local businesses, invest in the community and focus on the long-term development of the community.
To do that, the beloved community is needed, Rev. Hart said.
“We truly believe in the beloved community with no exceptions. We have our program and our programmatic thrusts are protection of all vulnerable individuals and marginalized and oppressed, including our queer family, including our women, including women of color… including those who don’t have adequate housing, don’t have adequate incomes,” Rev. Hart said.
Rev. Hart wants to make sure the definition of the beloved community is clear: it is inclusive of all without exception.
“There’s no way we can justify throwing away or ignoring or rebuking someone that God loves, and so we want to define and redefine and make sure that it is properly defined, the beloved community.”
Jesus’ Dream Weekend will kick off with the jazz concert on Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. Worship will be held the following day at 9:15 a.m. Both will be held at Sherman Church, 3705 N. Sherman Ave. Both are free to attend; no registration is required.
