Preparing a holiday dinner for 1,000 people is only the beginning of the journey nine Orangeburg churches are taking to foster unity across all boundaries.

The 2009 Thanksgiving Feast and Praise Dinner will be served from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School’s cafeteria Thursday thanks to the collaboration of several different Christian denominations. The event is free and open to the public.

Yvonne Crum, a member of New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, said “Our vision statement is to coordinate churches, businesses and agencies in the Orangeburg community to feed the needy and disadvantaged.

“We are trying to not only feed them physically but their spiritual and emotional needs and glorify God and unify the community.”

The Rev. Cary Hilliard, pastor of First Baptist Church of Orangeburg, says the effort is meant to reach everyone.

“This Thanksgiving feast is a celebration of what God has done and what we believe he is doing in our community,” Hilliard said. “We believe God is bringing His church together in that we should no longer focus on denominational or other issues but focus on being God’s church and meeting the needs of our community.”

The Rev. Jerome Anderson, pastor of New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, says the collaboration has been growing over the last 18 months.

“A group of ministers got together and began talking over the lunch about what we should be doing for the Orangeburg area,” Anderson said. “This event is geared more toward unity and a Kingdom focus, not just a single pastor, church or denomination.”

“The ethic is grabbing people’s attention. People are saying, ‘let’s do things together,’” he said. “It’s almost like a spiritual awakening as to what we should have been doing a long time ago.”

The Rev. Kristen Richardson-Frick, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, says the church has served Thanksgiving dinner for the last ten years. The dinner is being seen as a prelude to greater and expanded service by the local faith community.

“However, our church facilities are not adequate enough, and no one church has the resources to feed the whole body of Christ and the number of people we want to serve on that day,” Richardson-Frick said. “We believe this is just a beginning.”

Each cooperating church will donate their buses and a qualified volunteer driver to provide transportation to and from the high school. Richardson-Frick says pick-up times and locations have been established following communication with various communities in Orangeburg.

Anderson says ministers and congregation members of the cooperating churches aren’t wasting any time planning what’s next.

“After Thanksgiving, we are also looking at doing a community project, like developing a community center,” Anderson said. “The concept would be a one-stop shop to meet the community’s needs for things like food, clothing and rent assistance.”

Richardson-Frick says the community Thanksgiving is just the latest effort by area churches to bring Orangeburg closer together.

“There have been a lot of ecumenical worship services among churches in the city recently,” Richardson-Frick said. “We feel that the Holy Spirit is moving the ministers and the congregations in the body of Christ to worship and service.

“In doing this feast in celebration of the Lord, the event will bring the Word and the fellowship together.”

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

Pick-up places, times

Orangeburg Milling/Metts Grocery, Corner of Whaley and Magnolia – 10:30 a.m.

Glenfield Apartments, 2450 Columbia Road – 11:30 a.m.

St. Paul Apartments, 500 Fletcher/Enterprise St. – 10:30 a.m.

Orangeburg Manor, 1120 Wolfe Trail – 10:30 a.m.

Landmark Towers Apts., 1098 Doyle at Russell St. – 11:30 a.m.

DeerField/Hampton Chase/Edgewood, Mellichamp Elementary School at the corner of Murray Road and Cherokee St. – 10:30 a.m.

Orangeburg Area Development Center neighborhoods – OADC at 1060 Pineland Street – 10:30 a.m.

New Brookland community, Jamison’s Pharmacy, 1225 Goff Ave. – 11:30 a.m.

Malibu Apartments, 406 Malibu Drive near the Post Office – 11:30 a.m.

Southside Apartments, Cannon Bridge and Southland roads – 10:30 a.m.

Participating Orangeburg churches include, but may not be limited to: First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, St. Andrews United Methodist Church, New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Life Cathedral Ministries, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, St. Luke Presbyterian Church, Trinity United Methodist Church and Mt. Calvary Baptist Church.

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