Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Worship Service Sunday, Seminar Monday

January 16, 2009
by Christine Yeres

On Sunday, the Antioch Baptist Church of Bedford Hills will hold its 39th Annual Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Worship Service, led by its pastor, Dr. Paul S. Briggs.  The service begins at 4:00 p.m. at 3 Church Street in Bedford Hills.  Reverend Molly Blythe Teichert, pastor of Mt. Kisco Presbyterian Church, will speak; Briggs will act as “worship leader” of the service.

“We’re now in our thirty-ninth year of bringing an ecumenical and diverse community together to worship,” said Briggs. The choir, too, at Antioch is a diverse group whose members come from different faiths and rehearse together specifically for the Memorial Worship Service.  “Everybody walks away from this service with a real uplifted feeling and sense of community, treating it as a time to come together and spur ourselves on to do good work,” explained Briggs.

On Monday, January 19, Antioch’s celebration of the life and work of Dr. King continues with an education seminar at the First Presbyterian Church of Katonah from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., beginning at 8:00 a.m. with registration and a coffee hour. Antioch has been sponsoring this educational seminar for 24 years.

A native of Newburgh, N.Y., after many years as an artist and educator, Briggs, 45, came to Antioch five years ago from Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York, where he was chair of visual arts.  Since becoming pastor at Antioch, he has guided the Northern Westchester Interfaith Council, a coalition of clergy and concerned citizens who began an emergency shelter partnership to house homeless immigrant day workers. He also launched a Jewish-Christian Bible study group with Temple Beth El of Chappaqua. For more information, visit www.theantiochchurch.net.