Hope College will present its 11th
annual commemorative service and keynote address in memory
of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m.
in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The program will feature the theme "Is the Dream
Relevant in the New Millennium?" The keynote lecturer will
be Dr. Charles E. Booth, pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist
Church in Columbus, Ohio.
The service will also feature the Hope College
Gospel Choir. A candlelight prayer will follow the service,
as will a reception in the lower level of Dimnent Memorial
Chapel.
Booth has been pastor of the Mount Olive Baptist
Church since 1978. In 1993, he founded the Mount Olive
Christian Academy, which currently educates grades
kindergarten through six, stressing excellence in academics,
African and African-American history, and Christian
education.
Prior to coming to Mount Olive, he was pastor of
St. Paul's Baptist Church of West Chester, Pa.
Booth is the author of "Bridging the Breach:
Evangelical Thought and Liberation in the African American
Preaching Tradition," published by Urban Ministries in 2000.
He contributed to "Wisdom of the Ages: The Mystique of the
African-American Preacher," published by Judson Press in
1995, and "The Irresistible Urge to Preach: A Collectible
of African-American 'Call' Stories," published by Aaron
Press in 1992. He is also a contributing writer for "The
Worker," a devotional quarterly published by the Nannie H.
Burroughs School of Washington, D.C., and has had sermons
included in a variety of Judson Press publications.
He currently serves as professor of preaching at
Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. He has also taught
or lectured at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio,
The Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio, and
Eastern Union Bible College in Columbus.
Booth has been an invited lecturer or preacher at
events across the country as well as abroad. Honors that he
has received include the Alpha Kappa Alpha Humanitarian
Service Award in Columbus in 1981; being listed on the Honor
Roll of Great Preachers published by "Ebony" Magazine in
November of 1993; the Vertner Woodson Tandy Award for
community service from the Alpha Rho Lambda Chapter of the
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in December of 1998; and the
James Stamp Alumni Recognition Award for outstanding
contributions to young people attending UNCF and
Historically Black Institutions from the Inter Alumni
Council of the United Negro College Fund in June of 1999.
He received an honorary degree from Virginia Seminary in
Lynchburg in June of 1980.
He completed his bachelor's degree at Howard
University. He holds a master of divinity degree from
Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctor of
ministry degree from United Theological Seminary.
Additional information about the event may be
obtained either by calling the college's Office of
Multicultural Life at (616) 395-7867 or at the office's web
site, www.hope.edu/multicultural.