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Amistad day to ‘educate, inspire’
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October, 2003
A colorful, music-filled day is in store for the estimated 9,000 people from across the Conference who are expected to attend the MACUCC Amistad Celebration Day on October 25th at the FleetBoston Pavilion.
Storytellers, gospel singers, Conference choirs and musicians will set the tone beneath the tall masts of the Amistad Freedom Schooner, which will be docked just outside the pavilion.
“This event, which will give us a chance to celebrate our heritage as a justice seeking church, is designed to educate, inspire and bring together God’s ‘Kindom’ in a way that will send us out to do and be God’s change agents,” said Wendy Miller Olapade, who is chairing the event planning committee.
The program and worship service will be presented three times on October 25th in order to accommodate the number of people interested in attending. As of mid-September, more than 6,500 tickets had been sold, and the middle time slot was sold out.
As they arrive for their segment of the day, people will be greeted by three storytellers, playing the roles of characters from the Amistad Incident, when 53 Africans illegally sold into slavery rebelled against their captors and were eventually put on trial for mutiny.
People will have a chance to browse display tables, board the vessel, and watch a video on the Amistad Incident and the Freedom Schooner on a series of television sets. Children will be able to visit the Children’s Booth to join in activities and pick up an Amistad coloring book for a reduced price.
“The whole program will be about one hour and 45 minutes, with the majority of that being music. It will appeal to people of all ages,” said Associate Conference Minister Susan Dickerman, who is staffing the event planning committee.
Choirs at more than 250 churches that had purchased tickets for the event by September were invited to join in a Conference choir, and music will also be provided by specialty groups, including gospel choirs.
All the service’s music will be African American songs or music from the time period of the Amistad incident.
“The worship service will honor the past, the present and the worship and music traditions of our Congregational heritage as well as those of the African American faith community,” Olapade said. “We will all have the joyous experience of praising God together in a many-cultured experience. I am confident that we will all leave this event, renewing our call to attend to the progress that must be made for racial justice and extravagant welcome.”
An offering will be taken at the worship service which will be dedicated to future ministry in the area of racial justice.
Volunteers from various churches who assembled educational materials in preparation for the Amistad visit have now joined with others to form a new Conference Racial Justice Task Force, which will operate under the auspices of the Commission for Mission and Justice.
“We don’t want this to be a stand-alone event,” said Paul Nickerson, Acting Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism, Mission and Justice.
The task force’s first priority is to advocate for volunteers from churches to host Neighborhood Conversations on Race, the guidelines for which have been developed by the Amistad to Boston Host Committee. Training sessions for facilitators of those gatherings began in September and are ongoing.
The task force will also make sure those people who attend the Celebration Day will leave the event with ideas on the next steps they can take.
“We are hopeful that it will be a springboard to
do some work on racial justice issues,” Nickerson
said.