MLK service: ‘Let justice roll down like waters’
After two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday Worship Service returned Jan. 16, as part of the two-day 35th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Weekend, sponsored by the MLK Celebration Organization. Host of the service was Trinity Faith Christian Center on New Road in Lewes. This year’s theme was “Let justice roll down like waters,” which King stated in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
The worship service was dedicated to the memory of longtime church member Leonia Robinson.
Worship leader for the service was Nika Drew Reid, a member of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Slaughter Neck. Drew Reid, who was a school counselor for 23 years, is now supervisor of support services for the Indian River School District. She said each person in the congregation was on a journey. “We are going somewhere today,” she said.
The message was given by the Rev. Gary Meekins, who has served nearly 20 churches over the past 50 years in the United Methodist Peninsula Conference and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. He was called back to service after he retired in 2012 and is currently pastor at Harmony United Methodist Church in Millsboro.
Meekins, who grew up in Cambridge, Md., attended the March on Washington in 1963 when King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Meekins’ theme centered around the question: “What does God want?”
He said God wants relevant and vital worship, virtuousness and righteousness, justice for all people, holy living and lives committed to social justice. “God says there are no differences between faith and ethics,” he said.
Meekins said people are here on an assignment to work for justice and fairness, and to be caring and honest. “I’m still on assignment for God. He’s not through with me yet,” he said.
He said King gave his life for justice, not just for Black people, but for all people. “If we build our hopes on things eternal, God will lead us for the promised land,” Meekins said.
The service included Clem Jordan, MLK organization president, offering greeting; the Rev. George Edwards of Friendship Baptist Church in Lewes doing the invocation; the Canticle of Love by organization Treasurer Janie Miller; the Rev. Marjorie Belmont-Burns of Faith UMC and Israel UMC, the Old Testament reading; Merry McRae of Friendship Baptist Church, the New Testament reading; performances by the Trinity Faith Christian Center Gospel Praise Team; and Mariner Middle School student Shamir Lambert reading the purpose of the service.
The service also included a praise dance by Lorraine Smith of St. John Second Baptist Church in Millsboro; reading of the “I Have a Dream” speech by Bruce Duffy; introduction of the service preacher by Wilhelmina Stevenson; presentations to service participants by Jordan and Miller, and the dismissal by Bishop A.D. Jones of Trinity Faith Christian Center.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration was founded by the Sunshine Circle Club in 1988. The first weekend celebration, under the leadership of the club and the MLK Celebration Organization, took place in 1993.
