Church officials and other participants will come together from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on June 7 for PraiseFest 2014, an afternoon of praise and worship, promoting unity amongst believers in the community.

Emily Mayne, who organized the event, said PraiseFest is an event to promote unity in the body of Christ and to come together as believers without worrying about denominational barriers.

“This will be the third year,” Mayne said. “It’s continuing to grow, which is exciting. I think it was God’s idea. He showed me a vision of people worshipping on the waterfront with hands raised in the air and tents and that is the picture I got. So I just decided that is what we needed to do.”

The event, held on the Washington waterfront, facilitates believers coming together to worship the Lord in a public place, under no other banner but the banner of Jesus, Mayne said. This year, Mike Rogers, senior pastor at the Church in New Bern, is scheduled to give a message, but the event is geared for worship and audience participation.

“We center the event on praise and worship,” Mayne said. “We are just having a party for God and just love on him with worship and dancing and prayer and testimonies.”

Mayne said participants can experience an old-fashioned river baptism during the event as well. A boat will be making multiple trips out on the river to take believers out to be washed of their sins and reborn in the Holy Spirit.

“As people want to be baptized we will do several calls throughout the day,” Mayne said. “It’s just amazing. Every year we baptize five to seven people every time. We even have people chasing down the boat to want to go (get baptized).

There will also be a couple different bands present at PraiseFest 2014. The praise and worship band from Harvest Church, the Harvest Worship Band, and Radiant Soles, a praise band from Wilmington will perform during the festival. Mayne said Radiant Soles was rained out for last year’s event, but they have been invited back to perform this year.

Testimonies from participants will include Katie Hauser from Wilmington and Scott and Amanda Whitley of Washington. Festivalgoers are asked to bring their own chairs, food and families. Tents will be provided for the event as well as some drinks, but there are no vendors scheduled.

“We will have some drinks,” Mayne said. “We don’t have any vendors because we really want it to be all about Jesus and not about people selling this or that. It’s really just a day where you can come and enjoy family time. It’s a place where people can come and be prayed for — people you may not even know. That’s just how the body of God works.”