Community prayer breakfast to kick off Martin Luther King Jr. Study Day Jan. 17

GOSHEN, Ind. — Honoring the life of Martin Luther King Jr. in the context of the Christian faith that sustained him, a 7:15 a.m. community breakfast Jan. 17 at Goshen College will begin the day with prayer and remembrance. The fifth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Prayer Breakfast at Goshen College’s Church-Chapel Fellowship Hall will feature a meditation by Dr. Vincent Harding, who has spent his lifetime working on behalf of peace and justice including teaching, civil rights work and scholarship. Active in the civil rights movement, he was an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and served as the senior academic consultant to the award-winning PBS series “Eyes on the Prize.” With his wife, the late Rosemarie Freeney Harding, a 1955 Goshen College graduate, Harding led Mennonite Central Committee’s first Voluntary Service unit in Atlanta, Ga., during the civil rights era. He served 23 years as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colo. He is co-chair of the Veterans of Hope Project: A Center for the Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal in Denver.Goshen College Interim President John D. Yordy will welcome participants to the breakfast and the Goshen College Martin Luther King Jr. Study Day, which includes a 10 a.m. public convocation by Harding. Goshen College’s Voices-n-Harmony choir, under the direction of Patrice Penny-Henderson, will offer musical selections during the worship

program and convocation. Advance registration is required; tickets for the breakfast are $15 per person or $120 for a table of eight and must be reserved by Jan. 10.

For more information about the prayer breakfast, or to reserve a seat or table, call the Welcome Center (574) 535-7566. Sponsors of the breakfast are Goshen College, Goshen Health System and the Goshen Ministerial Association.

Jodi H. Beyeler