Over 80 members of First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton and the Wheaton Ward LDS enjoyed an interfaith fellowship trip by bus to the Mormon heritage sites at Nauvoo, Illinois, on May 22 - 23, 2010.  After touring the sites First Presbyterian Pastor Jay Moses and LDS Bishop Reed Nuttal led an interfaith worship service in the Seventies Hall in Nauvoo on Sunday, May 23, 2010.  Read Pastor Jay's reflections on this trip.

Jonathan Browning (1805-1879) was a gunsmith in Quincy who had converted to the Mormon faith after meeting Joseph Smith.  He moved with his wife and nine children to Nauvoo where he built a gunsmithy, developing and refining advanced (for the time) repeating firearms and manufacturing techniques.  The Browning gunsmithy in Nauvoo is now a museum and is open to the public at no charge.

Reflections from Nauvoo by Pastor Jay

I have always found two things in life to be true:  God plants good people in every race or religion, and I’ve never met a Mormon I didn’t like.  I found both of these convictions confirmed in my experience with the Red Carpet trip, with First Pres and LDS Wheaton Ward, to Nauvoo last May 22nd-23rd. 

A joint group of over 80 participants from each community boarded a bus and headed South/West to the historic town of Mormon Nauvoo.  We were given the hospitality of the LDS and Church of Christ churches as we learned more about one of the fastest growing religions in the world and the largest religion born on post-pilgrim American soil.  People are more than intellectual dogmas and beliefs … these beliefs are lived and embodied in our families and communities; it is imperative that we enter into each other’s sacred spaces and places, into each other’s tragedies and joys, if we truly seek to know each other as we seek to be known:  that is as children of God.

Nauvoo is a symbol for the intersection of both of these occurrences in a community’s life; joy and tragedy. I was especially moved by being invited to preach at the place (70’s Hall) and pulpit that Joseph Smith occupied so long ago. The fact that a community who experienced so much pain and estrangement from mine, both historically and theologically, would extend such grace to me was an experience of reconciliation and love that I will never forget and will continue to grow into.

As Joseph Smith left the common road of his day, he was plagued by a question that is as relevant now as it was 150 years ago: “What church is the right one?”  From this trip a powerful reply could be formulated:  the one that loves the other as themselves.