An ecumenical tradition continues in our community on Sunday, May 1 when seven area pastors will exchange pulpits and congregations for the day.

The Wilmington Area Ministerial Association Pulpit Exchange will treat each participating church and their pastors to different settings and unique styles of preaching during the exchange. While the worship experience of every church is a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, each tradition develops its own wonderful and personal ways of expressing that Gospel through its practice of worship.

Likewise, preachers have their own unique approaches to the sermon and how they treat the appointed scripture passages for the day. Through the lens of their training, experience, pastoral journey, and how the Spirit of God has encountered them, a particular style of preaching emerges, one to which congregation’s become accustomed.

When a different preacher enters the pulpit the congregation will experience the sermonic task in all its diversity, while the pastor will encounter another environment for worship that will challenge and broaden her or his experience of the church.

The following schedule will be followed for this year’s Pulpit Exchange:

• Rev. June Fryman at Springfield Friends at 10:45 a.m.

• Rev. Dean Feldmeyer at Wilmington Friends at 10 a.m.

• Pastor Julie Rudd at Wilmington Presbyterian at 10 a.m.

• Pastor Nancy McCormick at First Christian Church at 10:30 a.m.

• Pastor Mike McCormick at Wilmington Methodist Church at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

• Rev. Debbie Linville at Faith Lutheran at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m.

• Rev. Dr. Tom Stephenson at Chester Friends at 9:45 a.m.

The community is warmly encouraged to share these messages through congregations committed to love and serve the Lord in a spirit of friendship and cooperation.