Gospel singing concert will be held outdoors

DEL CITY — An outdoor Del City Gospel Singing concert will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Del City Nazarene Church, 4701 SE 26.

Special singers will be The Masters Touch and Living Water Quartet. A love offering will be received. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

For more information, call 677-2330.

Local minister reflects on Rep. John Lewis' OKC visit in the 1960s

In doing research for a recent sermon, the Rev. Richard Mize discovered that U.S. Rep. John Lewis spoke at a Presbyterian gathering in the 1960s in Oklahoma City.

Mize, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2301 NE 23, and The Oklahoman's real estate editor, said he learned that Lewis gave a speech at the 1964 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, one of the denominational parents of the Presbyterian Church USA, of which Trinity Presbyterian is an affiliate. He said he mentioned Lewis' visit and remarks in his sermon held on the Sunday after the civil rights icon's July 17 death.

“Considering Trinity's own history in racial justice work — as a church integrated in 1960 — I don't know how I could have not mentioned him the Sunday after he passed, once I knew he had been here to speak to the national meeting,” Mize said.

“I knew about the 1964 General Assembly from my research to get Trinity on the National Register of Historic Places. ... I was going to mention him in my pastoral prayer. When I found out he had been here, and then remembered the involvement of both the Presbyterians and the United Church of Christ in the Freedom Rides, the sermon just took off.”

Mize said he found a Presbyterian Historical Society account of the civil rights leader's speech to about 800 people attending the Presbyterian Interracial Council Breakfast.

In his July 19 sermon entitled “Righteous Repetition,” Mize included Lewis' remarks to the breakfast gathering: “We must turn this nation upside down in order to set it right side up. It is long past time when all of us must become involved.”