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Hernando Today

New Year Welcomed With 'Jubilee Celebration'

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: January 2, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - They sat in rapt attention and listened to the powerful words.

"... I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States ... are, and henceforward shall be free; ..."
John Waddy finished reading the Emancipation Proclamation and peered at the congregation from behind the podium. It was not Abraham Lincoln's words he repeated next, but those of abolitionist Fredrick Douglass.

"It's better to die free than live a slave," Waddy pronounced to an echo of "amens." "I don't need freedom when I'm dead. I can't live on tomorrow's bread."

The congregants lining the pews of Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church nodded their heads in agreement. Waddy wrapped up his message by tying centuries of oppression to a vision for 2009.

The Emancipation Proclamation "did more than make us free, it made us champions and now president," he proclaimed to enthusiastic applause.

And that's the essence of a Jubilee Day Observance, a chance to look forward to a New Year while preserving the legacy of history's lessons.

Thursday's observance took place in Brooksville at the AME church on Leonard Street under the direction of the Rev. John D. Williams Sr. It was a time of music, scripture and reflection.

The Bishop Herman Scrivens drew parallels between black history and personal duty with a sermon about the importance of saying, "I'm sorry."

It's tough to say those two words because it means an acknowledgement of guilt, but it's a necessary step towards atonement, he said.

On the one hand, Scrivens said, America still owes blacks an apology for their treatment under slavery.

"We built a nation on (slave's) backs, literally," he said. And when they protested, "they put a noose around their necks."

Neither is it possible to mend fences and come to peace with God when pride keeps someone from saying "I'm sorry," he said.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com

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