On Sunday, January 15, 2017, two historic congregations, Travis Park UMC and St. Paul UMC (San Antonio), will gather for one worship service at 10 am in Travis Park’s sanctuary. The featured speaker will be United Methodist Bishop Woody W. White (retired), a noted episcopal leader and an advocate for social justice and civil rights.
The worship service will honor the amazing life and witness of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and celebrate Human Relations Day with a special offering to help all of God’s children realize their full potential.
Bishop White is a retired bishop-in-residence at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. An active leader in the Civil Rights Movement, every January White writes a “birthday letter” to Martin Luther King, Jr., chronicling the strides and missteps in matters of race during the previous year. White has also written extensively for both popular and scholarly publications. Each year, White also takes seminary students to Selma, Alabama to participate in the annual march across Edmund Pettus Bridge in commemoration of Bloody Sunday.
The service precedes the city-sponsored MLK, Jr. Commission yearly march and commemorative program, which is held the following day, Monday, January 16. The march begins at 10:00 am at the MLK Academy located at 3501 MLK Drive, and ends at Pittman-Sullivan Park, 1101 Iowa.
San Antonio hosts the largest MLK, Jr. march in the nation, with approximately 300,000 participants. The parade is made up of families and individuals, corporate and non-profit organizations, schools, churches and civic groups, colleges and universities, and community members. For questions about the march, call 210.207.7084.
