Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast Set for April 7
Lincoln, NE (March 3, 2021) The public is invited to attend the 37th annual Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, which will be presented online from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 7. The theme is “Faith, Spirituality, and the Struggle for Racial Justice.” To register and learn more about the free event, visit http://bit.ly/RSVP-2021-Breakfast.
The program will feature a conversation between keynote speakers Parker J. Palmer and Rev. Dr. Gregory C. Ellison II on the influence of Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, who was a spiritual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the first civil rights leader to meet with Mahatma Gandhi.
Palmer is a world-renowned Quaker author, educator, and founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal. He has been named one of most influential senior leaders in higher education. In 2010, he received the William Rainey Harper Award, whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, and Paolo Freire.
Ellison is an ordained Baptist minister, Associate Professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, artist, activist, and founder of Fearless Dialogues, a grassroots initiative that creates spaces for unlikely partners to engage in hard, heartfelt conversations. He is the author of “Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for African American Young Men” and edited a recent book on the influence of Thurman titled “Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet.” Palmer contributed an essay for this book.
The program will feature remarks by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, as well as sacred readings, prayers, and music from a variety of Lincoln’s faith and religious communities.
The purpose of the event is to promote unity, understanding, and mutual support among Lincoln’s diverse faith and religious traditions. This year’s event will highlight the social justice and liberating role of faith and spiritual communities throughout history.
The event is organized by the Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast Committee, and the sponsors include the Lincoln Community Foundation, Community Health Endowment, Greater Lincoln Chamber Foundation and the Faith Coalition of Lancaster County.