Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, has been known to do quite a few things behind the pulpit that create controversy but it’s often done with the intention to create awareness.

It was around this time last year that Warnock took an AIDS test smack dab in the middle of the historic church to create awareness as part of the National Week of Prayer for Healing of AIDS.

[READ: Ebenezer Pastor Takes AIDS Test in Church – VIDEO]

In similar fashion, Warnock proclaimed yesterday “Hoodie Sunday” and encouraged churchgoers of all ages to wear hoodies to Sunday service.

The pastor and his congregation took a stand for Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black teen who was killed on Feb. 26 while walking through a gated community in Sanford, Florida after returning from a convenience store, by joining demonstrators nationwide in protest of the case.

Details about Ebenezer’s “Hoodie Sunday” + more photos below…

Warnock encouraged young people not to become cynical as a result of what has happened to Trayvon Marton and suggested that a hoodie could be the source of a different type of intimidation.

“If you really want to frighten somebody,” Warnock  said, “put on a hoodie from a college you graduated from.”

Warnock rocked his Morehouse College hoodie as he preached about the injustice of Trayvon’s case from behind the same pulpit where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached for non-violent social change.

“It is important to channel anger over the incident in a constructive and non-violent way.  I am angry that Trayvon Martin is dead,” Warnock said.

“I am angry that the admitted killer has not been arrested. I am angry they we have to protest just to get the basic assumptions of justice-making to work for black people in America in 2012.”

Warnock told the AJC on Sunday afternoon, that while there is anger, there is also an opportunity to bring attention to the situation in a non-violent manner.

“As the church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the church of non-violent struggle on behalf of justice, we thought it important for us to say that a hoodie is not weapon,”

“We stand today in solidarity with the Martin family and in support of our young people who deserve better than to be stigmatized and stereotyped. The message of the Martin case is that bigotry is dangerous and even deadly.”

During the sermon, Warnock compared Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till, the Chicago teen who was lynched in Money, Miss. in 1955. Both young boys were killed for crossing some imaginary social line.

Mr. Zimmerman took a gun to a Skittles fight. Apparently Zimmerman is innocent until proven guilty and Trayvon is guilty until proven innocent.

Warnock said he hoped the incident would become a teachable moment for the entire nation.

As law abiding citizens, we expect that the police and the criminal justice system will operate in a fair manner and so far that has not been the case.

Why not arrest Mr. Zimmerman and allow the wheels of justice to go through their process? Then we would have to be satisfied with the outcome. But without an arrest, the process itself is arrested. That is why you see such an outpouring on the streets of America.

Warnock made note that no one should be considered suspicious in a hoodie and that history suggests that African American’s should be the one’s fearful of people in hoods.

“The funny thing is, we’ve been dealing with people in our communities wearing hoods and we didn’t shoot anybody and we didn’t kill anybody. We believed in America even when American didn’t believe in us. We kept the faith,” said Warnock.”

Ebenezer Baptist Church member Bob Pickens spoke on the case also, stating:

“The situation that happened with Trayvon was extremely unfortunate, but not unusual and this service is in support of his family and expressing our concerns about the things that currently prevail in America in terms of our African American young men.”

Warnock expressed his belief that Trayvon’s spirit has touched our nation in a way that will forever change our views. Using the Atlanta Falcons war chant, Warnock notes that Americans should take note and “rise up” for the cause…

“Trayvon got up inside of all of us, from Florida to New York, from Massachusetts to Mississippi, he got up and began to speak and say to America, ‘You can do better, rise up,'” said Warnock.

We have GOT to do better and something has GOT to be done…

FULL PHOTO GALLERY