Category: News || By Gladys Hunt-Mason

Members of McKeesport-area churches and ministries will join at 4 p.m. Sunday for an interfaith celebration to mark a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The public is invited to the celebration, to be held at the Auberle Chapel, 1101 Hartman St., a spokeswoman said. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Dr. Darrell Knopp.

Special music during the worship service will be provided by Marilyn Baldwin and the local gospel group Chalice. A free-will offering will benefit the Select Committee on Crime and Violence.

A buffet reception will be served immediately following the worship service.

Initiated in 1908, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated annually in communities across the United States as well as around the world. The theme for 2013 is, "What Does God Require of Us?" taken from the Old Testament book of Micah, chapter 6.

Recently retired from full-time ministry, Knopp began service in McKeesport when he was called to pastor the former Central Presbyterian Church in October 2001. Six years later, he also became pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

Under Knopp's guidance, the two churches merged to become McKeesport Presbyterian Church on July 1, 2009.

While in McKeesport, Knopp has been busy in the community and has received awards for his service to the city by former Mayor James Brewster and current Mayor Michael Cherepko.

He also was recently recognized by the State Senate of Pennsylvania for his service to the city. As a leader in the McKeesport Area Ministerium, he guided the city to its first ever Community Thanksgiving worship service and dinner in 2006. In 2010, Knopp worked with others in helping to keep the 45th District State Senate seat in the Mon Valley.

Knopp has served the Pittsburgh Presbytery in a various capacities over the past eleven years: the Committee on Preparation for Ministry; the Presbyterian Media Mission Advisory Committee and as an informal consultant with the film ministry. He also served in 2007 as a delegate and missionary to Nansambo Church in Blantyre Synod in Malawi, Africa.

Knopp is currently a member of the Mayor's Select Committee on Crime and Violence, where he serves as chair of the McKeesport Message subcommittee. In addition, he has been employed as a part-time chaplain for Via Quest Hospice since 2009.

Knopp and his wife Gloria, an administrative assistant at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church , are the parents of two sons, Nathan and Andrew and loving grandparents to Maya Claire Knopp, born in May 2012.

The Christian Unity service is sponsored annually by the Jericho People with the McKeesport Area Ministerium.

The Jericho People is a group of clergy and lay leaders dedicated to breaking racial and denominational barriers among McKeesport area churches.

(Editor's Note: Submitted and written by spokeswoman Gladys Hunt-Mason: ghuntmason - at - msn - dot - com>)