The Howard Thurman Home—New Birth Inc. held a special “Pilgrimage Celebrating the Birthday of Howard Thurman” on Monday, November 18. The event, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, on the 125th anniversary of Thurman’s birth, honored the man who has been called “the pastor of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Visitors were given the opportunity to walk through Thurman’s home and attend a service honoring his life at the Stewart Memorial United Methodist Church.
At the service, Gene Tinnie from the Thurman home’s board of directors announced future plans for the site, including a museum and community garden. According to Tinnie, these plans will be enacted in ways that are “socially conscious for visitors and residents [of Daytona Beach] alike.”
During a time to collect an offering for the project, the Bethune Cookman University Concert Chorale provided a musical reflection of the spiritual “I Know I’ve Been Changed.” In 1963, Thurman gave the commencement address at Bethune Cookman, a Historically Black University in his childhood hometown of Daytona Beach, after which he was presented the key to the city.
Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert, a professor of homiletics at Howard University, delivered the keynote address. After taking the pulpit, Dr. Gilbert paused while scanning the audience before declaring to each member present, “I see you.”
Gilbert’s sermon, “Preaching Toward a Beloved Community,” acknowledged Thurman’s ongoing contributions to the world.
“Because of the many worlds and contexts he inhabited,” Gilbert said, whether it was his life in the academy or the church, domestic or abroad, or whether it was due to his prolific output of literary and media productions, as a preacher, Howard Thurman’s impact on human society and theological learning was prodigious and without refute.”
He added, “By his more than six decades of professional ministry, Howard Thurman captured the hopeful imaginations of persons of every social caste and racial category.”
Howard Thurman was considered a preacher, theologian, sage and mystic. He worked for many years in the spiritual life departments at Howard and Boston Universities. 1944, he co-founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco.
A recording of Monday’s service can be found here. Donations for the ongoing work of Howard Thurman Home can be found here.
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