Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are joining fellow Christians in the Bay Area for a fourth-straight year to honor Jesus Christ through song and service.
On Sunday evening, 27 April 2014, an interfaith choir and orchestra performed the Lamb of God oratorio (which tells the story of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection) at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. It was the final of five such Easter concerts in the Bay Area.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who has been a part of this interfaith effort since its 2011 beginning, expressed gratitude to Latter-day Saints for joining with the faith community to “build up a spirit of goodwill, of peace, and to contribute to the common good.”
“We’re all motivated by giving glory to God,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “We want to serve, we want to make a positive contribution for the sake of the common good. The common witness that we give is a great sign to our society, which is so much in need of that deeper, lasting peace that only God can give.”
The concerts are a forerunner to an upcoming Bay Area interfaith blood drive (also in its fourth year) in July — a time when the need for blood donations is the greatest and the blood supply the lowest.
Elder Robert N. Packer, an Area Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the concerts and blood drive are the result of strong relationships between Latter-day Saints and Catholics in the area.
“This is being done because there’s a lot of love between this Catholic community and the Latter-day Saint community,” Elder Packer said. “There is a lot of love on the part of the people that are trying to make a difference in community projects.”