LEWISTON — Bates remembered the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in worship service Sunday night.

With responsive readings from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, gospel music and a sermon from award-winning performance artist Carvens Lissaint, the Peter J. Gomes Chapel hosted an energetic service in remembrance of the slain civil rights leader.

Artwork adorned the walls in black and white. One depicted a scene from the civil rights march on Washington, D.C., another a Ku Klux Klan meeting and another of King.

The service began with a prelude from the Three Points Jazz Trio, followed by a welcome and opening prayer by the Acting Multifaith Chaplin Emily Wright-Magoon.

During the responsive reading from the “I Have a Dream Speech,” attendees were encouraged to stand, shoulder to shoulder in the spirit of the crowd gathered at the National Mall.

Student Jalen Baker read from King’s letter from the Birmingham Jail, focusing on time and silence, reading,”More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively or constructively.”

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

Acting Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier asked those attending to write what actions they can take and what commitments they can make on the index cards provided and place them in the offering baskets to be displayed later.

Lissaint took the stage to deliver the sermon. A performer both on and off Broadway, Lissaint has performed at the Sundance Film Festival and the Kennedy Center and can be seen in the television series “Verses and Flow.”

The son of Haitian immigrants, Lissaint has toured the United States, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean and is named one of The Root’s Top 30 performance poets.

After a brief introduction to his message, Lissaint sang Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” while his wife, Leslie, performed an interpretive dance to the lyrics.

In his sermon, Lissaint stressed that those things we know about King, all the things we saw of his actions, were the results and not the work.

He stressed that “purpose is what happens after the dream has occurred,” saying the dream doesn’t happen without labor.

Stressing that “freedom is not an app on an iPhone,” Lissaint said that the ability for such a diverse crowd to gather Sunday evening was the answer to somebody’s prayer and a product of hard work.

Lissaint told attendees to free themselves of the chains that keep their dreams unfulfilled, calling on people to “step into your calling.”

dmcintire@sunjournal.com

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