West Haven crowd told King's struggle 'is ours now'

Source: New Haven Register, Conn.mini storageJan. 16--WEST HAVEN -- The Rev. Martin Luther King's fight is now ours and becoming involved is the way to honor the late civil rights leader.That was the message of the Rev. Richard D. Meadows, who preached at a service Wednesday, King's 85th birthday, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit. Meadows is rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in New Haven."We are in the struggle and there is where we find our strength," Meadows said. "Martin, like Moses, said longevity had its place. He just wanted to do God's will."Longevity wasn't God's will for King, who was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis at 39. It was the night before his death, preaching at the Mason Temple, when King preached his "last speech and they called it the mountaintop speech," Meadows said. The night was cold and stormy and King's "goal was to bring some sort of peace to what was a very bad situation with the sanitation workers in Memphis."King had come to Memphis in support of those workers, who had gone on strike for higher wages. But King did not dwell on the contemporary political issues, Leonard said. Instead, he said he would have liked to have known and seen Plato, Aristotle, Martin Luther, the Renaissance and other great people and times, linking all people throughout history in "the clarion call, the call to be free.""He wanted the world to know that we are all Go儲存's children and no longer to live as we are forced to live": in poverty or discrimination. All people are meant to fulfill the call that all men and women are created to be equal," Leonard said., "that they deserve to be treated with dignity."Leonard called on the mental images of people who were not treated that way: domestics, elevator workers, girls who were bombed in a church, those beaten on the Edmund Pettis Bridge or hit with the water from fire hoses, "the waters of baptism and freedom."King "reminded Americans to be true to what it wrote on paper ... the freedom that comes from the struggle. ... We are on a lifetime journey to the precious promises of God."The several dozen people who attended the service heard that "it's going to take some Samaritan type to help in dry places ... and dangerous places," referring to the good Samaritan. "We must carry forth and be determined to stand in the gap."The Eucharistic celebration was concelebrated by Leonard and the Rev. Lisa D. Hahneman, rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit.Call Ed Stannard at 203-789-5743. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) Visit the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) at .nhregister.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉