Cops carry cross through Rock Hill on Good Friday to spread word of Jesus

These cops wore no guns, nor badges. They only wore their faith, and they shouldered a heavy wooden cross to show it.

For almost three miles, carrying an 8-foot tall and three-foot wide cross of treated lumber that weighed at least 40 pounds.

The weight doesn’t seem so much, said these cops, when you think of the weight that Jesus carried with his cross two thousand years ago for the rest of us.

And they even had the faithful walking behind them for support, and thousands of drivers as their audience.

Rock Hill Police Department officer Wayne Maury, a member at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, and one of his best friends, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer Adam Sommerville, left Cherry Park in Rock Hill Friday morning with the cross and their retinue behind them.

The journey is not connected with their jobs, but an off-duty showing of faith. They wore bright neon shirts to make sure drivers could see them. As if anybody could miss two guys carrying a cross along one of the busiest stretches of road in the city.

“We just want to show people the message of Jesus Christ,” said Maury, 29, an officer for six years.

Sommerville, 32, a police officer for three years, said that the effort is worth it, too.

Drivers honked and waved, and the group had to stop at stoplights and crossings just like any other walking group. All pressed on, the heavy cross on the cops shoulders, but a burden that these two officers said on this day is the burden of the faithful.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Cops carry cross through Rock Hill on Good Friday to spread word of Jesus."