FARMINGTON — Craigen Healy of New Vineyard spoke of unity Monday at the annual Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The retired teacher urged the group gathered at Old South Congregational Church to choose “love and brotherhood as tonic against society’s long-told stories about people of another race.”

“In our society where white skin is the norm, we don’t necessarily think of ourselves as being white. Often, we aren’t aware of how racial prejudice affects us,” she said.

Healy shared an example of residual prejudice as it was explained to her by an instructor at a Maine United Congregational Church anti-racism training.

“A farmer used an unhealthy chemical fertilizer for years on his large fields,” she said. “He and his neighbors have all eaten produce from that farm, and they have drunk the local water that contains a bit of that fertilizer, so its residue lies within them. In a similar way, the residue of slavery and segregation hasn’t yet been totally eliminated in our country. We all need to continually purge ourselves of that residue of racial prejudice as opportunities present themselves,” she said.

Healy said she learned about race relations at home. Her mother was born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama. Her father “served God by directing a settlement house in the ghetto” in Columbus, Ohio.

“Mom came from a devoted church-going family, but they all supported segregation. It was obvious to her that those people were not applying Jesus’ teaching to do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” she said.

Healy heard King speak in 1965 at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

According to Healy, King told the new graduates they must remain awake through this great world revolution, with a deep understanding that every human being longs to be free, and that the great challenge now is to make the world one in terms of brotherhood.

“The desire for mutual acceptance certainly rings true in today’s contentious world,” she said. “I dream that the United States of America might embrace Dr. King’s standard of using only nonviolent actions to force change. Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And thank you to the many, many everyday people who stood up and claimed their freedom in unity.”

After retiring from teaching in 2005, Healy and her husband, Bob, began volunteering with the Maine UCC Honduras Partnership with the Evangelical and Reform Church of Honduras. Their work in Honduras includes overseeing a scholarship fund for village teenagers and supporting CEVER, a Christain vocational school.

Following the service, the Healys departed for a three-month trip to Honduras.

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