Ohio Wesleyan, Delaware to Observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day
The Rev. Dr. Albert Paul Brinson
DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University and the Delaware County Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee will observe the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech with two days of programming including a worship service, breakfast celebration, and examination of “President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration as a Celebration of Dr. King’s Dream.”
The 2013 observance will begin with the 28th annual Delaware-area worship service at 3 p.m. Jan. 20 at First Presbyterian Church, 73 W. Winter St., Delaware. The service will feature the Rev. Dr. Albert Paul Brinson, a colleague of the Rev. Dr. King, John Lewis, and others active in the civil rights movement. Brinson earned his master’s degree in divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta was ordained at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church by co-pastors Martin Luther King Jr. and Martin Luther King Sr.
Brinson also will speak during the Jan. 21 MLK Breakfast Celebration in the Benes Rooms of Ohio Wesleyan’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. The 20th annual breakfast will begin at 7:45 a.m. and Brinson’s reflections on “Keeping the Dream Alive” will follow at 8:30 a.m.
Individual breakfast tickets are $20, with eight-person table sponsorships available for $160. For reservations, contact Rosalind Scott, celebration committee chair, at (740) 368-3386 or at rdscott@owu.edu. Reservations and payment are requested before Jan. 16, 2013, but tickets will be available at the door. Table sponsorships help fund Delaware County MLK Scholarships. Since 1990, the Delaware County Martin Luther King Celebration Committee has awarded more than $18,000 in scholarships to county youth.
The celebration of King’s legacy will continue at 7 p.m. Jan. 21, when Ohio Wesleyan’s Emmanuel Twesigye, Ph.D., discusses President Obama’s second inauguration in the context of King’s dream. (Event location to be announced.) Twesigye is the Aden S. and Mollie Wollam Benedicts Professor of Christian Studies at Ohio Wesleyan, and his teaching specialties include church history, theology, and Christian ethics.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities. Ohio Wesleyan offers more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. OWU combines an internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that connect classroom theory with real-world practice. Located in Delaware, Ohio, OWU’s 1,850 students represent 41 states and 45 countries. The university is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, and included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.