Several hundred people attended the concert, which was held at Oakdale Covenant Church on Tuesday. The North Park choir included 150 students, and other churches contributed 50 musicians to a “unity choir.” The money was raised through an offering at the free event.
“We were ecstatic,” says Jocelyn Thornton, pastor of Emmanuel Covenant Church, who first proposed the idea. Thornton says she was inspired by a motion at this year’s Central Conference Annual Meeting that called for churches to be more intentional about doing combined ministry in multiethnic settings.
The event far exceeded her expectations. “The diversity was wonderful!” she exclaimed. “The support we had from everyone in the churches, the conference and the national office was tremendous.”
In addition to members of Oakdale and Emmanuel, also participating in the event were members of Naperville Covenant Church, Atonement Covenant Church, The Storehouse Covenant Church, Beverly Covenant Church, New Jerusalem Life Covenant Church, Community Covenant Church, Friends for Life Covenant Church, and Sojourner Covenant Church. The accompanying photo shows one of the performers, Sonya Blakely.
The North Park choir sang several pieces by itself as well as joining the other performers. “We had a great time,” says director Rollo Dilworth.
