On Facebook this week, we asked about how people are honoring Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend, whether in services or otherwise.
Of course, in posting about it, I was soundly thwapped for reposting one of my Facebook connections’ Feast Day posts, because he had mentioned Jan. 15 as that of Martin Luther King Jr. But by most calendars, apparently, his feast day falls on April 4. At least one of our readers pointed out that they would commemorate King’s legacy on both dates, and another said that “both [secular holiday and religious feast day] emphases are liable to abuse and distort the legacy of the Christian witness celebrated, if we’re not careful.” Something to consider.
But here are some of the things our readers contributed.
Rita Ann Brown-Wallace: “In my parish we don’t have anything special in the service, but we have a MLK brunch targeted to the young people … It used to be on the Monday, but it is better attended on the Sunday. There is a nominal charge for [donated] food; we get a speaker, someone from the parish or community. Usually someone speaking firsthand about the black experience in the US in the era of MLK, or earlier. The proceeds go the scholarship fund which we distribute to HS graduates every June to help them with their college costs.”
Dale McNeill: “Yes, with choice of hymns and even by using the propers … This is an important date for my parish and it would be very odd not to mark the secular holiday here.”
John Bullock III: ” Stanzas 2 & 5 of We shall overcome from LEV2 for our “musical benediction” and “Lift every voice and sing” LEV2 #1 for our Processional Out.”
Jane Redmont: “References in sermon and tying in to the lessons for the day (I mean 2d after Epiphany – plenty of tie-ins) in continuity with my colleague’s sermon last week inviting us not just to denounce but to renounce violence of all kinds.”
Katrina Soto: “It’s our annual peace mass at church.”
Meg Anderson Wagner: “We host a Service Day on Monday where people from the community come and bake, sew quilts, knit hats and gloves, and assemble toiletry kits that all go to our local homeless shelter.”
And our own Sunday Lead editor, Torey Lightcap, signed off this morning that he was “off to church, MLK sermon in hand.”
For those of us off from work and school tomorrow, it’s important to note why we are: It’s not so retail box stores can have another excuse for a sale. There is still so much important work to do in the realm of civil rights for all human beings. Thank you to everyone who helps keep his vision, his memory alive.