An annual gathering in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is scheduled to be held Sunday, January 14, at Immaculate Conception Church in the Bronx, sponsored by the parish’s St. Martin de Porres League.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on the third Monday in January each year, to commemorate the late civil rights leader’s birthday. This year, the holiday falls on King’s birthday, January 15. The event theme will be “Living the Dream: Hope, Courage, and Unity.”

The MLK 2024 event, set for 3 to 5 p.m., will be “a celebration of his birthday with quotes, music, and a keynote speaker,” organizers said. The guest speaker will be Colin Bereth, Esq., coordinator for Social Justice and Special Programs of the Pierre Toussaint Scholars Program, which is sponsored by the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York.

“The community here (St. Martin de Porres League) has been organizing this encounter for several years; this will be my second time here,” the parish pastor, Father Luis Saldaña, told The Good Newsroom in a January 11 phone interview. “This is to keep the conscience (of King’s Dream) alive among the people – his legacy; it’s very important. You can feel the enthusiasm of the people.”

Bereth, the guest speaker, citing current times, said, “Difficult times become less difficult when hope is a guiding force; so one of the themes (of the talk) is to double down when things seem hopeless…We need to re-contextualize that message (from Rev. King) every time we hear it for our time now. We need to start re-imagining, re-understanding, and re-affirming the messages of Martin Luther King – and particularly where it starts: in church, with theologians. Theology and the Church have always been the rock of civil rights, of human rights.”

“It’s a call for youth; that’s what I’m all about. I’m all about the youth getting involved,” he added.

Bereth is also a civil trial consultant who graduated from Fordham Law School in 2017. After graduation, he worked at the NYC Office of Legal Affairs litigating Article 78 cases and later joined New York County Defender Services in Manhattan. Article 78 proceedings are lawsuits mainly used to challenge an action (or inaction) by agencies of New York State and local governments.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday honoring King. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 39.

After the MLK 2024 event on Sunday, light refreshments will be served in the parish’s Ave Maria Hall. Immaculate Conception Church is located at 754 E. Gun Hill Road, the Bronx.