BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS – More than 400 Christians took turns carrying a red oak cross through town Friday evening in a show of religious unity and reverence.

The second annual Procession of the Cross in Kannapolis went off without a hitch, with about 100 more participants than last year and decidedly better weather, according to the Rev. Billy Rintz of Midway United Methodist Church, event organizer.

‘‘It actually was kind of neat,’’ Rintz said this morning. ‘‘When we started out it was sunny and like 80 degrees. Later the clouds moved in and covered up the sun, sort of like how the Scriptures describe the clouds blotting out the sun when Jesus was crucified.’’

One measure of success is that more than two dozen congregations – about 10 percent of the city’s total number of churches – took part in the procession, Rintz said. Participants included members of conservative and liberal denominations, black and white churches, young and old parishioners, and even a Laotian congregation.

Some people read aloud prayers and passages from the Bible in Spanish. A Japanese minister also recited some prayers.

‘‘There were three things we wanted to have happen,’’ Rintz said. ‘‘One is we wanted to remind the Christian community of the story of Good Friday, of Jesus and his crucifixion.

‘‘The second thing is we try to use it as a witness to the entire community to the importance of Good Friday.

‘‘The other thing is we try to bring the Christian community together. It’s really hard to get churches to interact. A lot of churches kind of do their own thing.’’

The mass of worshipers took about two hours to walk a 1.2-mile circular route from Kimball Lutheran Church on Vance Street to First Presbyterian Church.

Along the way the group stopped to read Scripture and covered some of the 14 stations of the cross. The group recited the Lord’s Prayer and dismissed in silence. Event organizers handed out four-inch flooring nails as keepsakes.

The group followed a 9-by-6-foot cross made by Kannapolis resident Bill Jolley for the first procession last year. Jolley made the cross from rough-hewn, red oak timbers he found in a dilapidated barn between China Grove and Salisbury.

‘‘I always notice that a lot of children want to touch it or carry it,’’ Rintz said. ‘‘At one point I saw about 10 children carrying it. But there was probably no less than six or seven people carrying it at all times.

‘‘Maybe next year we need to make it bigger.’’

Rintz said he plans to organize the procession again next year, although he will need to change the route. The city is closing the railroad crossing they used at East C Street.