WS Chronicle

The Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity will hold its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day programs on Monday, Jan. 20 beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the annual Youth Rally & Breakfast at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 950 File St.

Youth step teams, spiritual dancers, mime, choirs, missionaries and spoken word poets are invited to participate. Call the Mt. Zion church office at 336-722-2325 to register your group(s). This year’s theme is “Speak up and Act: Embracing our Human Rights!”

Following the event, at 10:45 a.m., conference members will lead the annual MLK Day March and Rally from Mt. Zion to Winston-Salem State University for the MLK Day Coalition program at the Anderson Center. The program, slated to take place from 11:30 – 1 p.m., is sponsored by the Ministers Conference, Democracy NOW and the Winston-Salem Branch of the NAACP. The program will focus on important social justice issues, including voting rights, worker rights, the prison pipeline and the health care and the Affordable Care Act. Local advocacy and service organizations are invited to set up booths at the event.

Churn

A worship service will be held that evening at 7 p.m. at St. Stephen Baptist Church, 5000 Noble St. Rev. Dr. Serenus Churn, pastor of Mt. Zion, will speak.
This event is a fundraising program for the Ministers Conference’s MLK Seed Scholarship. Incoming freshmen at historically black colleges receive $1,000 scholarships from these fundraising efforts. The conference has awarded more than $125,000 in scholarships over the past 25 years.

Congregations are invited to participate in all of the activities and make donations in the amount of $150 (small congregations), $250 (medium size congregations) or $350 (large congregations). The funds will go toward providing scholarships.