|
|
FARMINGTON -A small gathering of local residents ignored snowy roads to attend the annual observance for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, held at the Old South Church.
The service is put on by local ministers and others affiliated with the Franklin Area Ecumenical Ministries, who hosts the event every year. The hymns, prayers and scripture reading were accompanied by excerpts from the documentary “King: A Filmed Record; Montgomery to Memphis,” which features the reverend’s writings and interviews.
Rev. Cathie Wallace, of Old South Church, welcomed the guests by noting that King’s dream often could seem very distant, but that his lessons were more important than ever.
|
Martin Luther King, Jr. |
“Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that,” she said. “But we need to gather, to remember Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Held on the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a celebration of the life of the reverend, who was a central figure in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis.
In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King addressed concerns raised by fellow clergymen at 1963 demonstrations in the then-heavily segregated city.
“But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice,” King wrote, “I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”
The Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry churches consists of the Old South First Congregational UCC, the Henderson Memorial Baptist Church, St. Luke’s Episcopal, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic, Fairbanks Union Presbyterian, Shorey Chapel UCC and the Trinity United Methodist.
