Sunday was Baccalaureate Day at Highland Park. This service allows us to salute the academic accomplishments our members. It is always exciting and encouraging to see men and women who have actualized a long held desire and achieved a degree. This year’s Baccalaureate speaker was Melonie Wright, a 2016 graduate of Emory University School of Law.
On Sunday, October the 20th, we were delighted to welcome Bern Nadette Stanis to Highland Park. If you watched Good Times in the 70’s, or in reruns in the last decades, you will remember her as Thelma. Thelma was one of my favorite characters on the show. I always wanted to see what she was wearing. I was excited when she got engaged to the football player. I thought she would have the life she always wanted. Then, I was upset when her fiancé fell and the injury kept him from making the team. Thelma married him anyway, and it seemed that her life remained pretty much the same. I was always rooting for Thelma, and her family, to have happy and problem free good times. What can I say, I was a young viewer and this was prior to my understanding of the necessity of tension in a drama.
Last year, one of the first posts for this site featured the upcoming nuptials of Franshon Reid and Rev. Willie Barnes, Jr. People are still talking about the overwhelming love and magnificent splendor experienced at their wedding, and the downright good time enjoyed at the reception. Coupled with starting a new life as Mrs.Barnes, Franshon joined her husband's side in ministry as First Lady of the Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Daytona Beach, FL.
As I traveled and shared in ministry throughout the Anne Arundel County, I met ministers' wives and widows who did not have any connection with other ministers’ wives and widows. Many of them were experiencing challenges and there was no place for a minister's wife to go for support or encouragement. Most did not know about the Maryland Association of Ministers’ Wives and Ministers’ Widows. My experience in the local, state and International Association of Ministers' Wives and Ministers' Widows has had a major impact in my life. It helped to shape the woman I am today. I knew that women would benefit and find value, as I did, in a local organization. I also realized that the minister's wife looks different today and her needs are different. It was time to come out of the box and meet minister's wives where they are and I wanted to make a difference.
Last month, when my husband and I were heading home after Saturday night service, we learned that the home of Rev. Ericka Platt and her daughter Dominique had caught fire. We offered immediate prayers of thanksgiving that they were not home and no one was injured. Her home was a loss, and Rev. Platt and her daughter were left with only the clothes they were wearing. The next morning at the 7:30 a.m. service, Rev. Platt was in service, sitting in the overflow room, with her fiancé, Officer Erick Banks. Pastor Davis noticed her on the monitor as he was closing his message.
Lady Lenyar Robinson of Dream Life Worship Center, Randallstown, MD, arrived in St. Louis, MO last night. She was able to get to her parents’ home, for Thanksgiving, one hour before the airport closed and inbound planes were diverted to other airports due to reports of gunshots fired into the air. When she was reached this a.m. by phone she said that it is difficult to articulate what is going on in her community.
