The Very Rev. Dr. Michael Battle to Preach on Dr. Martin Luther King Sunday

Trinity Church Wall Street will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Sunday, January 16, at Holy Eucharist, in-person and online, at 11:15am. As is the parish custom, a guest preacher will deliver the sermon: the Very Rev. Dr. Michael Battle, author and professor at General Theological Seminary.

Dr. Battle has partnered with Trinity on multiple occasions. He taught a five-part curriculum series in 2017 on The Book of Revelation. He delivered opening remarks at Undocumented, a program designed to guide faith communities in their efforts to assist immigrant communities. More recently, Dr. Battle led a three-part Discovery series on The Worldview of Desmond Tutu and interviewed Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe, one of the late archbishop's daughters, about the spiritual leadership and life of her father. 

Dr. Battle shared what he called "my essential thought" in these days leading up to his Sunday sermon.

“Remembering a person is at the heart of Christianity. Jesus even commanded us to remember him. We’re also called to remember the succession of Jesus’ disciples in whom Martin Luther King Jr was definitely one," Dr. Battle said.

"Our problem with all this is twofold—our memories are short or like Medusa, we turn the Jesus movement into stone.”

Trinity Church Wall Street's tradition of formally observing the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which predates the 1986 establishment of the federal holiday, was championed by Trinity parishioners who were members of the Task Force Against Racism.

Among the guest preachers invited in past years are the Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Seminary, the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the National Rainbow Coalition,  poet and professor Fred Moten of NYU, and activist, scholar, and public theologian Ruby Sales.