MLK Worship Service "Let Freedom Ring"

PAPA, the Peekskill Area Pastors’ Association (PAPA), an interfaith collegium of recognized religious leaders from 90 Houses of Worship (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Unitarian, Jewish and Muslim) and Mount Olivet Baptist Church, invites the public to the annual worship and celebration program honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Peekskill Middle School on Monday, January 18, 2016 at 3pm. The theme this year is “United in Hope: Striving Together Towards Freedom.” Rev. Dr. Robert Young, Pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, will offer the keynote address. The worship service will include a youth choir, musicians and dancers.

In existence for nearly 150 years, PAPA has historically played a pivotal role in issues of justice and service in the community of Peekskill and its vicinity. While religious leaders come together to further causes that put our individual faith into action, they respect, but do not debate the different approaches to God that an individual Pastor may hold in faith.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award will be presented to the Rev. John Keane, SA, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, by the leaders of the PAPA. A native of Philadelphia, Rev. Keane took his final vows as a Franciscan friar in 1959, and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962. From 1962-1980, he served in the friars’ ministries in Japan. He returned to the U.S. and worked as a campus minister at Howard University from 1980-1983. He has directed the ecumenical and interfaith offices in the California dioceses of San Francisco, Stockton, Monterey and Sacramento. In 1989, he received the Man of the Year Award from the Jewish Community of San Francisco. In 2006, he received the James Fitzgerald Award for Ecumenism presented by the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, and in 2008, he received the Bishop Gerken Award for Respect Life from the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas. In 2010, Rev. Keane joined the retreat department at Graymoor in Garrison. He has been an active member of PAPA for five years. In 2014, as the chairperson of PAPA’s hunger committee, he helped to organize the Garden of Hope in Yorktown Heights, which grows nutritious produce for local food pantries from spring to autumn. As a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, he continues to coordinate the activities at Graymoor and the surrounding area for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Church Unity Octave, a forerunner of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, was developed by founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Servant of God Father Paul of Graymoor, in Garrison, New York, and was first observed at Graymoor from January 18-25, 1908. Today, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity invites the whole Christian community throughout the world to pray in communion with the prayer of Jesus “that they all may be one” (John 17:21).

This event is hosted by Rabbi Steven Altarescu and Rev. Stephany D. Graham. The President of PAPA is the Rev. Dr. Anthony Stephens, Pastor of Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church in Croton Harmon, NY. For more information, contact Rev. Stephany Graham (914) 737-3322.