This year’s Ogden Interfaith Concert will be held at the Ogden Tabernacle on Sunday at 7 p.m., though people are asked to arrive closer to 6:30 p.m. The event is free, but a donation of canned goods is recommended. These collections will go to the Catholic Community Services Food Bank.

Pastor Steve Tharp, interim pastor for Elim Lutheran Church in Ogden, told the Standard-Examiner that this year’s event will look a little bit different.

“This year, we’re going to do an Interfaith Concert that’s a little bit different than years past where we’ve put on a big gala event with a name venue,” he said. “This year, it’s going to be more of a family-type of event where we’re featuring local talent — people from the community — and we’ll just be coming together and sharing the night together with music and just enjoying each other’s company. It’s going to be a more, I think, intimate family affair than in years past.”

He said the decision was made to highlight area talent because the most effective way to help members of the community is to know who they are.

Photo supplied, Ogden Communication Council/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“In years past, we’ve had really name-people that would come and sing and it was very, very high-end,” he said. This year it’s just going to be us local people singing from the different choirs and groups in our community. … I think the goal was to just look at our local communities. Really, that is where the most effective work can be done to help in a community — when you’re actually looking at your community and getting to know the people that really need your help and also getting to know your neighbors.”

Performers this year will include:

• Melody Brown (The 5 Browns)
• Glory Johnson-Stanton, Second Baptist Church, with accompanist Kenny Singleton
• Diane Bordinaro, organist
• Community United Methodist Church Grace Notes Bell Choir, Ogden; Community Presbyterian Church Memorial Handbell Choir, Brigham City
• The Lux Choral Society
• Ave Maria World Premiere performed by Stephen Tenreiro, Allison Sawyer, Maggie Connolly and Jennifer Hughes
• Bob Adams, Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church
• Diane Bordinaro

“If you really want to help someone, if you really want to love someone, it’s not a government agency that does that or a big bureaucracy; it’s getting to know the people in your community and knowing what they really need,” he said. “This is kind of a way of going back to the grassroots, I believe, and actually getting to know our neighbors and celebrating with them and then being more of an effective force to help people who are struggling in our own neighborhoods.”