By Paula Day

Organizers of this year’s Catholic celebration of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. focused on the need to pass the dream to a new generation who must make the sacrifices necessary for a “new Passover.”

Father Edward Branch, Newman director at the Atlanta University Complex, was the principal speaker January 12 at a prayer service commemorating the life and vision of Dr. King.

If Dr. King were to return in 1991 he would “find the dream still deferred,” Father Branch said, and the manifesto of the Great Society of the 1960s “a mirage.”

If King returned, Father Branch continued, he would be feted by civic and political leaders in the country, and then he would visit today’s civil rights leaders who would tell him of homelessness, poverty, and unjust economic conditions.

Using the Passover imagery, Father Branch said King “would write a report back to heaven: the dream is still deferred, pharaoh is unconverted. Send more angels. We need new lambs.”

“But there are to be no delivering angels from on high,” he continued, pointing out, “The angels are among us, some of us,” the lambs “will be among us.”

Approximately 200 people gathered at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the afternoon service. Among them were students from the Atlanta University Complex who took an active part.

An archdiocesan choir made up of musicians from St. Paul of the Cross, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. John the Evangelist, St. Anthony’s and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception sang, and The King Players from AUC performed an excerpt from “Martin,” a musical about the life and times of Dr. King.

The prayer service was a change from previous archdiocesan King Week events where celebration of Mass has been the focal point. A prayer service offers an opportunity for more lay involvement, according to Rhonwyn Rogers, director of the archdiocesan Office for Black Catholic Ministry.

“We want to make this annual celebration a broader, multi-cultural event where youth and women can participate,” Mrs. Rogers explained.

During the service, Scripture readings from the prophet Isaiah and the evangelist John and passages from the speeches of Dr. King were interspersed with choir music and congregational singing. As a sign of reverence and respect for the words of Scripture and Dr. King, AUC students lifted up bowls of burning incense during each of the readings.

Father John Adamski, pastor of the Shrine, read a reflection from Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, in which the apostolic administrator spoke of Dr. King as one who has walked “the path of unstinting loyalty even unto death, becoming the great and tireless hero who continues to inspire and propel us on to greater accomplishments.” Because he is recuperating from surgery Bishop Lyke was unable to take part in the service.

Mrs. Rogers offered a rededication to the message of Dr. King followed by the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” AUC students carried light from the Paschal candle to members of the congregation during the singing of this civil rights anthem. The service closed with the choir’s spirited rendition of “We’ve Come This Far By Faith.”

“On this eve of the birthday of Martin Luther King, we in the black church are moved to celebrate him as a new and recent experience of the care and protection of God in our behalf,” Father Branch said in his sermon. He pointed out that Dr. King was not a sign only to African Americans but a “light to the nations.” The black leader’s work and message of non-violent protest has “evolved from civil rights to human rights to world peace,” the priest said.

“In this new Passover, painting our doorposts with pictures of King will not do,” he said. “We must paint our hearts and minds with his spirit of consciousness, courage and commitment to save ourselves from the pestilence of the present day.”

Father branch pointed to recent attempted cutting back of grants and loans to minorities for higher education by the U.S. Department of Education, to the high percentage of blacks serving on the front line in Saudi Arabia, and to racism in the Church as symptoms of this pestilence.

“Let us mix a new paint for our doorposts,” he said. “A paint made up” of culture, heritage consciousness, commitment to education, to collective work and responsibility, and to spirituality.

In a prayer closing the service, the priest prayed for peace and that the “on-going work of the King Center and its non-violent approach may continue.” In response to petitions for those who continue to struggle for human rights, for civil rights, for peace and for the homeless and jobless, the congregation prayed, “Oh God, give us peace.”

In his reflections read by Father Adamski, Bishop Lyke remarked, “Even though we are born into a world that often proves a natural habitat for greed, jealousy and destruction, we must not permit such evidence of evil to deter us in our journey of hopes and dreams. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed and taught the power of hope, the power which defies all evil. We must believe and teach likewise.

“And so,” he continued, “as we turn to God in prayer and supplication, let us also see over the shoulder of God the strong and compelling face of Martin who lives eternally in the eager spirits of people who seek justice through peace.”

In addition to Father Branch and Father Adamski, Father Henry Gracz, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes, Father Melvin Shorter, pastor of St. Paul of the Cross, Father Joseph Fahy of the archdiocesan Hispanic Apostolate, Father Richard Wise, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul and Father Kazimierz Jasinski of the Polish Apostolate were present at the prayer service.

The Office for Black Catholic Ministry sponsors the annual event and members of seven predominantly black parishes helped plan the service.

Commenting on the importance of the presence and participation of the young people, Mrs. Rogers said, “It’s part of our responsibility to pass on the dream and keep it alive through our sons and daughters.”

Chris Stanard, a Georgia Tech graduate student and Morehouse College alumni, has attended the annual commemoration of Dr. King’s life and work for the past three years. “Dr. King’s work was important,” Stanard commented, “not only for the black community, but for its consequences for other minorities and the poor in general. He’s not just a black hero, but an American hero.”

Jamie Campbell, a freshman at AUC from the Bronx, said King’s nonviolence was a part of his Catholic school education. “In school we were taught to recognize the non-violent aspect of Dr. King’s vision,” Campbell recalled. “The emphasis was on talking first, and trying to find the non-violent way to solve the problems.”

Piaget Abreyhart, another AUC freshmen from Cleveland, was an incense bearer during the prayer service. He believed the commemorative ceremony helped him “realize the battle for equality has not been won.”

“I have to struggle to do all I can to help my people gain the freedom of true equality,” he said.