MOUNT VERNON — A Chicago minister who helped keep an elementary school open and its children safe from gang violence is the inaugural speaker for an annual lecture series sponsored by Cornell College and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids.
The Small-Thomas Lecture Series, “Dreams of Peace: Visions of the Future,” addresses diversity and community from a faith perspective. The Rev. Walter B. Johnson Jr., pastor of Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Cabrini-Green community of Chicago, will speak at sermons, forums and lectures March 12-13 in Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids. Public events are:
– Sunday, March 12: 9:25 and 10:55 a.m. worship services at St. Paul’s. Johnson will deliver the sermon, “Here Am I, Send Me,” and the Cornell Concert Choir will perform.
– Monday, March 13: 7:30 p.m., King Chapel, Cornell. Johnson will deliver a lecture, “Breaking Down the Walls That Separate Us,” and area church choirs will provide music.
Johnson has been called a coalition builder and was named by Chicago magazine as one of eight Chicagoans of the Year for 1998. He formed the Alliance for Community Peace, which pays adults in the Cabrini-Green area to escort children to and from school, protecting them from gang violence. He provides grief counseling to area residents, and children and their parents receive a variety of supportive services through a neighborhood family resource center.
The lecture series was conceived and funded by Richard Small, a former member of the Cornell board of trustees and a 1950 graduate, and his wife, honorary alumna and trustee Norma Thomas Small. The lecture series honors Norma’s father, Cecil Thomas, who was Cornell buildings and grounds superintendent (1956-1973) and consultant (1979-1991), and her mother, the late June Thomas.
Cornell is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The Rev. Bruce Ough, senior minister of St. Paul’s, is a member of the Cornell board of trustees.
For information on the services at St. Paul’s, contact Kate Brokaw, 363-2058. For information on the lecture at Cornell, call 895-4231.