Join us on Zoom for our fifth annual community reading of Dr King’s speeches, sermons and writings: Monday, January 18 from 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. All are welcome to join our Zoom gathering and take part either as a reader or listener at this link:
https://allsaints-pas.zoom.us/j/88436149527
Texts will be available in English and in Spanish
Here’s some history on “Let Freedom Ring” from All Saints’ rector Mike Kinman: “Like most Americans, I grew up knowing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King by the sound bites.
- “I have a dream.”
- “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
About 18 years ago, a friend gave me “A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.” It sat on a shelf for a while, and then, on King’s birthday, I pulled it down and decided I would spend an hour or so reading it.
I opened the book … and didn’t put it down for hours.
A whole new King was opened up to me. One whose love was radical, whose love allowed for anger and even rage. One who railed against capitalism and poverty, Viet Nam and white moderates. A King who was so different from the whitewashed, kum ba yah King that had been sold to me for most of my life.
And so I began a personal tradition, every year on MLK Day, of pulling out that book and spending the day immersing myself in all of his words – not just the sound bites.
When I started at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis eleven years ago, I learned that our pulpit was one of four places in St. Louis where Dr. King had preached. One day, I was mentioning to someone how meaningful it had become to me to spend King’s birthday reading his writings, and out of that conversation came the idea of a daylong, community reading of Dr. King’s speeches, sermons and writings from the very place where he had preached.”
And that tradition continues here at All Saints Church. For more information, email info@allsaints-pas.org
