Alle-Kiski Valley churches hold 52nd annual Martin Luther King memorial service

The Rev. Dr. Deborah Harris described standing in the doorway of room 306 in the Lorrain Motel in Memphis and trying to wrap her mind around the tragedy that happened there.

The room is where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed April 4, 1968. The room has been preserved as it was, a memorial to the civil rights icon.

“I wondered, ‘How can such a travesty happen?’ ” she said.

Harris was the keynote speaker at Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum where a memorial service was held Sunday in honor of King.

It is the 52nd year for the Alle-Kiski Valley King Memorial Service.

Started after King’s death in 1968 by the Highlands Community Action Committee, it was taken over in 2009 by the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches. Beyond the memorial service, the event raises money for the King Memorial Scholarship that is awarded each year to students from the area.

The longevity of the annual service comes from the meaning behind it, according to Karen Snair, executive director of association of churches.

“We come together and we celebrate … the unity and peace that comes from it,” she said. “It’s that message of unity and peace, and trying to make everyone get along. And that’s how it should be.”

More than $800 was collected during the offering Sunday, all of which will go toward the scholarship fund. Snair said 185 scholarships have been awarded since the memorial’s inception.

The service included a responsive reading of King’s famous “I have a dream” speech led by the Rev. Ronald Simmons.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character,” Simmons read.

“I have a dream today,” the congregation of more than two dozen responded.

Looking back at the moment she stood in the Lorraine Motel, Harris said she realized the world has failed that dream.

“I looked and realized his dream has not been fulfilled,” she said. “As a matter of fact, we’re not closer to it now than we were in 1968.”

She quoted a line from Numbers 16 that says, “You have come far enough.”

We haven’t, she said.

“When you look at where we are right now, we have not come close to answering that dream,” she said. The Scripture says, ‘You have gone far enough.’ I contend we have not gone far enough.

“I contend that we have work to do, and there is much more than we can do.”