Joint worship service for Temple and Islam SAN FRANCISCO -
A large number of civic and religious leaders gathered at Peoples Temple in San Francisco last weekend and participated in a joint worship service between the leadership of the Nation of Islam and Pastor Jim Jones’ congregation.
The service represented a breakthrough in relations with the Nation of Islam. They recently became inclusive in their membership and accepting of all races, and now frequently worship with the Peoples Temple.
San Francisco District Attorney Joseph Freitas, legislators from both State Senate and Assembly, as well as 15 pastors of all different faiths, including the bishop of the nationwide Christian Church denomination, participated in the worship service.
The Los Angeles extension of Peoples Temple,which Jim Jones also pastors, is participating in joint services with the Nation of Islam mosque in Southern California, where Temple officers met recently with the movement’s national leader and chief minister, Wallace D. Muhammad.
News of the meeting was kept private until released in the Temple’s newspaper, the Peoples Forum. which is circulated to 600,000 people throughout they bay region and Northern California.
The paper is designed to report good news that is taking place in America, as well as being a “defense for the defenseless.”
In recent issues the Forum has had wide ranging articles, including appeals for support in opposing the continued killing of baby seals in Canada.
The paper also encouraged readers to write the Soviet Union, urging a liberalization of ‘emigration policies to allow free movement of its citizens, including Soviet Jews, to any country they would choose.
Also mentioned in the Forum was a call for support of the family of a policeman who died just two and a half months before his retirement, causing the forfeit of a pension that woo;d have gone to his wife and children.
The Peoples Temple congregation voted in one of its recent services to accept a visit from the consul general of the present Chilean regime.
The officials request was made in response to a letter from the Peoples Temple thanking the new regime for releasing political prisoners in Chile.
Rev. Jones told the members and visitors in service, “Though we do not approve of militant regimes, we do believe in freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas, and thus want to allow the opportunity of hearing both sides of the Chilean issue.”
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