As attendees prepared for the final morning of the Matthew 25 Summit at New Life Presbyterian Church in South Fulton, members of The Many, the conference’s vocal instrumental group in residence, led those gathered Thursday in a time of centering, communal prayer.
Virtually every adult American knows that Mahalia Jackson sang at the 1963 March on Washington and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
As one who wrote the book on the role the Black church has played working to bring about social justice in the United States, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins was the logical choice Tuesday to complete Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Just Preach/Just Act series. The series began Monday with a sermon by the Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler.
“Do you feel like you belong?”
That’s what the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Rigby, the W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, asked the people attending Saturday’s Covenant Conversation at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City. Rigby was the keynote speaker.
For the past five decades, the Rev. Jim Wallis has been exploring the complexity and possibility of two of his favorite words, “justice” and “faith.” On Wednesday, Wallis, the founder of Sojourners magazine who now directs the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, delivered a talk at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., exploring whether American democracy is even possible given the threats to voting rights, civil rights and any number of other challenges Americans are facing.
“How Long, Not Long” is the popular name given to the speech delivered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery on March 25, 1965. King delivered this speech after the completion of the march from Selma to Montgomery. When asked how long it would take to see social justice, King replied, “How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The Israel Palestine Mission Network [IPMN] of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supports our Stated Clerk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, in his Jan. 17 call for unity of spirit, which he issued on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
To enhance learning and the celebration of Black History Month, leaders from Bending the Moral Arc: Courageous Conversations on Race and Justice will take a deep dive into the issues of structural racism.
“With this faith we shall be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope” was the theme for Wednesday’s special online worship service commemorating and celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme was a quote from Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the 1963 March on Washington.
During a webinar this week, lay leaders from two congregations — one predominately Black, the other primarily white — shared how their conversations about race and justice in the past year have strengthened their resolve to learn more about systemic racism.
