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Sharing the Dream Joint Worship WVC & CSAME
January 16, 2024
In January 2000, The Historic Charles Street AME Church (CSAME) and Wellesley Village
Church UCC (WVC) worshipped together at Jordan Hall in Boston in the first “Sharing the Dream”
service. Held on the Sunday just before the annual celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr's birth, the service was an active response to his remark "the most segregated hour of
Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning."
Each year since, the "Sharing the Dream" service has been held at one sanctuary or the other,
and a deeper and richer partnership between both churches has developed. We have
convened joint taskforces on issues of common interest; study groups have explored ways to
join in mission; we have shared mission trips to Fumbelo in Africa and For His Children in
Ecuador and to Washington DC and Philadelphia. When one of Village Church’s pastors
was out on medical leave, a Charles St. pastor served as the “Pastor on Call”, and the
Pastoral Residency Program began as a joint ministry with Charles Street AME and Village
Church. To this day, personal friendships between members of both communities have
matured and flourished. In 2018 we celebrated Charles Street’s 200th Birthday with great joy.
Whenever or wherever we gather, whether in person or online, both congregations give
thanks to God for the chance to worship together as one Body of Christ.
Link to joint Sharing the Dream service 1/14/24 >