A whole community celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Ron Carran Photo
The Interfaith Connection and Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence, based in White Plains, presented Music of Freedom, a concert in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Memorial United Methodist Church Sunday evening. Participants included Congregation Kol Ami, the India Center of Westchester, Memorial United Methodist Church, Mount Hope African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Shinnyo-En Buddhist Temple, The Sisters of the Divine Compassion, and the Turkish Cultural Center of Westchester. Each group performed musical renditions from their own traditions, often with song, consciously embracing the spiritual connection with all present.
The World House
“We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together—Black and White, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu—a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 1964
Shinnyo-En Buddhist Temple Ceremonial Taiko Drums resounded throughout the sanctuary at Memorial United Methodist Church elevating the spiritual sentiment of everyone present at the Music of Freedom Concert Sunday evening. Pat Casey PhotosMt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church Inspirational Choir sings “I feel Like Going On” and “I Feel Like Praising Him” in traditional Gospel style.Oguz Buyukbas, Sufi Dervish, whirls, turning on the spiritual journey toward truth. By denying the ego, the Sufi mystic embraces all humanity.Congregation Kol Ami Choir with Cantor Mo Glazman and Cantor Jonathan Comisar as pianist sing “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Mi Chamocha” in Hebrew a Jewish song of freedom and redemption.Maggie O’Keefe, Chander Ahuja, and Isra Ameen from the India Center play the sitar.10-year old Ritvik Yaparplvi plays the drums in a tribute to the Hindu God Ganesh and “Raghupathi Ragava” a Dhun dedicated to the God Rama, favorites of Mahatma Gandhi.Memorial United Methodist Church Choir with Jayson Dobney, Director, sang “For All the Children” by David Lohman, a song written after the suicide death of a teen who had been bullied. They also sang “I Believe” by Mark Miller, a piece based on words written on a wall by a Jewish prisoner of the Holocaust: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I do not feel it. I believe in God even when God is silent.”In closing and also in memory of Nelson Mandela’s recent passing, everyone joined in singing a South African freedom song “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight.” “We shall not give up the fight, we have only started. Together we’ll have victory hand holding hand. Never ever put to flight, we’re bound to win” the words rang out, an appropriate ending to a wonderfully uplifting concert.
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