MLK Sunday at All Saints’ Episcopal

From the venue:

All Saints’ Episcopal Church will celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Sunday, January 14, with a guest preacher and special music, including an afternoon concert with members of Theodicy Jazz Collective.

Dr. Joel Kemp, assistant professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory’s Candler School of Theology will preach at both the 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services and participate in a forum on race, religion and the law in the parish hall from 10:20 a.m. to 11:05 a.m. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Dr. Kemp served as an attorney and a minister before obtaining graduate theology degrees from Andover Newton Theological School and Boston College.

Music for the 9:00 a.m. service of Holy Eucharist will be provided by a jazz / gospel quintet, including Theodicy Jazz Collective members the Rev. Dr. Andy Barnett (piano), Will Cleary (saxophone), and Imani-Grace (vocalist) along with Robert Boone, Jr. (drums, Count Basie Big Band) and Mike Beshara (bass, Bonaventure Quartet).

The afternoon jazz concert, “Sounds of Freedom: Celebrating the Legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” will begin in the church sanctuary at 2:30 p.m. The quintet will be joined by another guest musician, Dr. Tony McNeil, professor of worship at Columbia Seminary.

Befitting a celebration of Dr. King, the concert will explore the power of music to unite, empower, and transform a community. It will feature freedom songs from the Civil Rights movement as they were originally intended—as inspirational communal songs—and the musicians’ improvisations will draw on the sacred tradition of musicas social commentary established by artists like John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Mahalia Jackson.