Church and Society leader joins civil rights pilgrimage
The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will be joining a congressional civil rights
pilgrimage to Alabama. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose. |
A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
March 6, 2009
|
Jim Winkler
|
Jim Winkler, top executive with The United Methodist Church’s social
action agency, will be joining a congressional civil rights pilgrimage
to Alabama, March 6-8, sponsored by the Faith and Politics Institute.
This will be the ninth pilgrimage sponsored by the institute to sites
in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma with civil rights leaders and
historians. The delegation will be led by Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.),
Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) and Artus Davis (D-Ala.).
Winkler serves on the board of the Faith and Politics Institute, which
is a nonpartisan ministry based in the United Methodist Building in
Washington. The group works to cultivate civility and respect among
members of Congress, he said.
“One of the highlights of the ministry of the institute is their
Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama. This year, I will be
joining 33 members of Congress, including Rep. John Lewis of Georgia,
himself one of the most important civil rights leaders in American
history.”
|
The Rev. Jim Lawson
|
One purpose of the visit is to highlight the civil rights movement as a
start toward a greater America, according to institute officials. Among
other sites, the delegation will visit the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham, where a bomb blast in 1963 killed four girls in
their Sunday school class. They will have a wreath-laying ceremony at
the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery and re-enact the 1965 march
across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
“I know this pilgrimage will be a spiritual mountaintop experience for
me,” Winkler said. “I look forward to being with, among others, Rev.
Jim Lawson and Rev. Joseph Lowery, both of whom are great United
Methodist civil rights leaders.”
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Articles
Lowery, Height join those on inaugural platform
Benediction will be emotional, Lowery says
Bishop’s 33rd letter to King celebrates ‘unforgettable’ milestone
Civil Rights: Related Articles
Resources
Board of Church and Society
Faith and Politics
Commission on Religion and Race
Unlocking the Future
Walking with King |
Facebook
Korean News