A Martin Luther King Day Community Celebration will be held in the Miller Chapel on the Ashland University campus on Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The event, which will feature keynote speaker Dr. Marvin McMickle, is sponsored by the Ashland Center for Nonviolence at Ashland University, Ashland Theological Seminary, Institutional Diversity and Christian Ministry offices at AU, and Peace Lutheran Church.
The event also will feature a special performance by the AU Gospel Choir and area children will be recognized for their art work and essays tackling the themes of “Living Together in Peace” and “Resolving Conflict in Today’s World.”
McMickle, a distinguished church leader and theological educator, will speak on the topic, “Land Where My Fathers Died.” McMickle has served as the 12th president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School since 2011.
McMickle is a 1970 graduate of Aurora University in Aurora, Ill., with a B.A. in philosophy. His alma mater also awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1990 as well as the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2000. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1973. That school also awarded him the Unitas Award in 2007. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J., in 1983. Princeton later named him a Distinguished Alumnus in the school’s bi-centennial year of 2012. He was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1998. In 2010, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio.
He was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1973 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City where he served on the pastoral staff from 1972-1976. He was pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church of Montclair, N.J., from 1976-1986. While in New Jersey, he served as president of the New Jersey Council of Churches from 1982-1986, as a member of the Montclair Board of Education from1982-1986, as well as two terms as president of the Montclair Chapter of the NAACP. He also taught preaching at New York, New Brunswick and Princeton Theological Seminaries.
From 1987-2011, he was senior pastor of Antioch Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio. During that time he led the church in establishing a ministry for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. While in Cleveland, McMickle served on the Board of Trustees of Cleveland State University, as president of the Shaker Heights Board of education, and as president of both the local NAACP and Urban League chapters. He was the professor of Homiletics at Ashland Theological Seminary from 1996-2011. He is a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. In the winter semester of 2009 he served as a Visiting Professor of Preaching at Yale University Divinity School.
Those with questions about the event can email the Center for Nonviolence at [email protected].
