Media Advisory - SECRETARY DANIELS TO PARTICIPATE IN MLK, JR. DAY VIGIL MONDAY
Thursday, Jan 11, 2007
Contact: Natasha Naragon
(501) 683-1441
What: Secretary of State Charlie Daniels will participate in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Vigil 2007.
When: Monday, January 15th, at 8:30 a.m.
Where: “I Have a Dream” memorial on the campus of Philander Smith College
Details: Secretary of State Charlie Daniels will participate in Vigil 2007 honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a part of the service, Secretary Daniels will read a portion of Dr. King’s “A Pastoral Prayer,” the text of which is below.
A Pastoral Prayer (1956), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“O God, our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this golden privilege to worship thee, the only true God of the universe. We come to thee today, grateful that thou hast kept us through the long night of the past and ushered us into the challenge of the present and the bright hope of the future. We are mindful, O God, that man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of things and humanity is not God. Bound by our chains of sin and finiteness, we know we need a Savior. We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man. We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anybody or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate. Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us. We thank thee for thy Church, founded upon they Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon thee. Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.”
