CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Commission will host the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Ecumenical Service to a statewide audience Monday.
The Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs (HHOMA) recently announced it will be done virtually due to COVID-19 and will be broadcasted from WV Public Broadcasting, the West Virginia Channel at 8 p.m. The service will also be HHOMA Facebook page at 9:30 a.m.
“We are looking at the positives of this virtual program. In the fact that we are going to be able to reach a lot more people around the state. Just already with our social media posts, it has reached thousands of people,” Commission Chair and HHOMA Executive Director Jill Upson told MetroNews.
The service annually fills the inside pews and outside halls of the Asbury United Methodist Church in Charleston for singing, praise, reflection, and community awards.
The King Center in Atlanta set the 2021 King Holiday theme as ‘The Urgency of Creating the Beloved Community.’ This theme will be showcased throughout the 2021 commemoration, according to a release.
This year’s commemoration features keynote speaker Dr. Chiquita Howard-Bostic, the Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity and department chair of Sociology, Criminology, and Criminal Justice at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Upson said those who view and take part in the service will be in for a treat with Howard-Bostic.
“She just gets out there and does so much work in the community. She is also a professor at Shepherd University and is a beloved community member that does so many things on so many different levels,” she said.
Upson said other parts of the service, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Chorus and the march to the state Capitol, will be prerecorded. She said the commission pulled together last year’s songs and packaged in a video that is going to air as a premiere Monday.
She added that there were too many commissioners and attendees that are in the vulnerable ages to COVID-19 and have underlying conditions to go forth with an in-person march.
“We just determined there was no way to bring people together, unfortunately, until the vaccine is widely available to do the march,” she said.
Upson said she hopes the online presence and streaming of the service is here to stay but plans are to be in-person celebrating in 2022.