Martin Luther King Sunday, Jan 15

Detail from cover of book by Luke A. Powery, Dean, Duke U. Chapel

Royalties for Spirituals Project Launching This Month!

Starting next Sunday Jan 15, 2023, aka Martin Luther King Sunday, Race + Equity will be launching the Royalties for Spirituals project! (Nancy Donny will be specially preaching for us on this theme as well.)

As a church, one way we can live into our covenant to respond to racism is to reflect on the history of spirituals. Our church loves spirituals and we use them in our worship often (an average of 21 times a year). The legacy of racism makes us unable to make royalty payments for spirituals in the typical way because we don’t have a clear cut person or way to pay for their use.

So, like some of our neighboring churches, we will be raising funds to give programs supporting local young black musicians as a symbolic way to show appreciation for the richness spirituals bring to worship at Pilgrim.

Over the next 6 Sundays, into Black History month, with a bonus culminating Sunday before Juneteenth we’ll be looking to raise at least $1619, in recognition of the year enslaved people were brought to this country.