During the past few months, I have taken part in a variety of events, such as the mayor’s inauguration and the swearing-in of Lewiston’s leaders, an anti-abortion rally in Augusta sponsored by the Maine Right to Life, an all-day community conversation sponsored by the Center for Preventing Hate, a community policing meeting designed to make our community a safer place, and a lecture at Bates College by Wilson Louis, mayor of Cité Soleil in Haiti.

What do all those functions have in common? The answer is the lack of attendance by local clergy.

Where are members of the faith community? Where are their voices? Where is their influence?

When I was a child, I remember the old paintings of a community setting and out from the center of town stood a tall steeple. What is depicted by the paintings is that the church was at the center of everything going on in the community.

From our pulpits to our prayer rooms, how dare we petition God to move on our behalf and change the direction of our city?

Somehow, we think we are exempt from being a participant in the process.

Someone told me, a long time ago, that we must have faith if we want to move mountains, but don’t neglect to bring a shovel along with you.

The Bible says in James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

The Rev. Douglas Taylor, Lewiston