Bally church encourages acts of service to honor MLK Day
The participants of the Boyertown Area Ministerial Association would like to update you on the status of our Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Community Service. Our commitment to working and speaking out against racism and prejudice, and our hope for racial healing in our community is undiminished. However, we did not plan on hosting the event this year. Pine Forge Academy had been honored with an invitation to perform at the Kimmel Center in a production entitled “Singing Freedom” on Monday, Jan. 16. We consider their choir an essential element of our annual service, so we did not plan to host the event without them.
It has been three years since our community last gathered for this important event and reminder as a continued striving for justice and righteousness in our society as called for in God’s Word. We met in 2020, but then did not hold the service in 2021 due to COVID restrictions. We planned to host the event in 2022, but Pine Forge Academy had to cancel after their Christmas break due to a student delay in returning to their campus because of a large number of COVID cases. We did not want to leave anyone in the dark as to why the event has not been held recently. The intention and passion remains to continue challenging our community with the vision and dream of Reverend Doctor King to live more fully according to the will and calling of our God.
The words of Paul in Colossians 3:9b-15 speak to us powerfully, “…Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”
We do want to encourage acts of service in our community this month to honor the intention of the holiday. We all need to be reminded of the goal to “Love your Neighbor as Yourself” in keeping with the teachings of Jesus.