Marching in Unity
News
Missouri Bishop Bob Farr opened the Martin Luther King Day Unity Walk in Wentzville this year as part of his pledged monthly effort to engage with African American communities across the state.
“If there’s chance for things to change, it will come from people like you,” Bishop Farr said. “Change doesn’t just happen. It happens because people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had the courage to make it happen.”
He led the crowd in chanting, “We don’t need a day off. We need a day on.”
“The days are over when people can say, ‘Things are fine out here in the suburbs. We don’t worry about the city.’ There is no such thing. We are connected together. We are one, no matter what color we are or where we come from,” Bishop Farr said.
Bishop Farr quoted Psalm 72 in his remarks, which calls for defending the poor and overcoming the oppressor.
“Three thousand years ago people were writing things we still need to
hear today,” he said.
In his closing prayer before the march started, Farr drew from the words of Martin Luther King.
“Lord, I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events around us,” Farr said in part.
Following the event, Bishop Farr met and had lunch Pastor Maury Clay and some of the leaders from his church, Wesley-Smith Chapel, a primarily African American United Methodist Church in Wright City.
Bishop Farr’s next community day of prayer will be March 17 at Belgrade UMC.