Westminster Presbyterian Church has history on its side, and organizers of a Watch Night service there Monday evening hope they can create a mood of anticipation, much like slaves felt on the eve of emancipation 150 years ago.
The service, which will be held in the church sanctuary, will feature talks about the Emancipation Proclamation, the executive order signed by President Lincoln that set in motion the freeing of slaves in most of the South, actors portraying Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and period spiritual hymns sung by members from four choirs.
It is a re-creation of a possible Watch Night that might have occurred a century and a half ago, said Kathryn Harris of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Newspaper reports told of the faithful gathering in churches and bells pealing when word was reached that Lincoln finally signed the proclamation later that New Year?s afternoon, she siad.
?I can only imagine,? said Harris, ?that the mood was one of anticipation, anxiety and joyfulness that (the Emancipation Proclamation) was signed.?
Westminster, then known as Second Presbyterian, broke away from Springfield?s First Presbyterian Church in the 1830s, and many of its founding members were avid abolitionists, said Dale Rogers, the church?s organist, who helped plan the Watch Night service. There is correspondence preserved between Lincoln and some of the members of Westminster.
Part of the Watch Night service will be the tolling of the church bell, which was dedicated in 1840. The bell might have rung out 150 years ago at the news of the signing of the proclamation. Westminster is at 533 So. Walnut St.
?Time for reflection
While Watch Night has a history steeped in African-American churches that goes back to ?Freedom?s Eve,? it is traceable to the early 1730s to the Moravians, a small Christian denomination worshipping in what would be the present-day Czech Republic, who used it as a way of renewing their covenant with God.
About four decades later, Methodists picked up the practice with the same observation.
Now, some church leaders see it is an alternative to secular New Year?s Eve celebrations and a chance to ring in the new year with church family.
The Rev. Dion Crites brought the Watch Night tradition to Word and Spirit Family Life Center, a racially diverse church at 801 E. Lawrence Ave. that he founded two years ago after 20 years at Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ.
At Word and Spirit, choirs will sing praise and worship songs, and Crites will offer testimony on ?how God calls us into 2013.? Congregants will begin praying about 15 minutes before midnight and will continue until just after the new year rings in.
When he started Watch Night at Miracle Temple, Crites first thought it was ?something different. Now I realize it?s something better,? he said.
?It turns into a joyous occasion for what God has done in your life,? Crites said. ?It can get kind of rowdy, but it?s a rejoicing kind of rowdy.
?It?s a time to reflect on all the things God has done for you.?
Crites said he will personally reflect on how his son, Dion Jr., who is in the U.S. Army, has been deployed to Iraq three times.
?God has brought him home every time, and for that we?re thankful,? he said.
While the Watch Night service at Word and Spirit won?t specifically harken back to the Freedom?s Eve blueprint, Crites said the evening is about spiritual freedom.
?In the world, there are many things that can lead you to bondage: drugs, alcohol, marriage problems. There?s a liberation that comes with being with Christ. You can cast all your cares onto him,? he said.
?Heightened awareness
Harris, who is also library services director at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, said the Emancipation Proclamation ? which will be reprinted in the Watch Night programs ? may not have been one of Lincoln?s most eloquent pieces of writing, but it served its purpose. ?
?It was a war measure, an attempt to get the Southern states to give up their arms,? she noted.
The proclamation would have given slaves in rebellion states ?further resolve to leave (their situations)? and go where it was safe, especially under the protection of Union forces, she said. It also would have also opened the door for blacks to serve in the military, though there were blacks in the Union Navy at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Harris hopes the event will heighten people?s awareness of the significance of events, both historically and currently.
?With freedom came other issues as well, issues we?re still dealing with today,? she said.
Steven Spearie can be reached at spearie@hotmail.com or at 622-1788.
A sampling of Watch Night services
(All services are Monday, Dec. 31.)
*Word and Spirit Family Life Center, 801 E. Lawrence Ave., Springfield
Time: 9 p.m.
For more information, www.facebook.com/pages/Word-and-Spirit-Family-Life-Center or call 816-9684.
*Westminster Presbyterian Church, 533 So. Walnut St., Springfield
Time: 8 p.m.
For more information, www.wpcspi.org or call 522-4415.
*Zion Baptist Church/Calvary Baptist Church, 1601 E. Laurel St., Springfield (Zion)
Time: 10:30 p.m.
For more information, call 544-1426 (Calvary) or 528-6113 (Zion)????
*Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, 908 So. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Springfield
Time: 9 p.m.
For more information, call 522-2513.
*Fresh Visions Community Church, 2400 North Grand Ave. E., Springfield
Time: 10:30 p.m.
For more information, www.freshvisionschurch.com or call 726-5988.
*Abundant Faith Christian Center (New Year?s Eve Night of Worship), 2525 Taylor Ave., Springfield
Time: 9 p.m. (fellowship), 10 p.m. (service)
For more information, www.abundantfaith.org or call 585-4000.
*Holy City Church, 1601 E. Carpenter St., Springfield
Time: 10:30 p.m.
For more information, call 789-4567.
*Atterberry Community Baptist Church, 13922 Greeley St., Petersburg
Time: 8 p.m.
For more information, www.freewebs.com/atterberrybaptist/ or call 632-2538.
*Lighthouse Apostolic Church, 1224 W. Franklin, Taylorville
Time: 10 p.m.
For more information, www.lighthouseapostolicchurch.net or call 820-1527.
Emancipation Proclamation anniversary events
Freedom?s First Day
Where: Old State Capitol State Historic Site
When: 1 p.m., Tuesday
President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation and holds a press conference to talk about its impact.
More information: www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org or call 785-9363.
Signed Emancipation Proclamation exhibit
Where: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Museum?s Treasures Gallery), 212 N. Sixth St., Springfield
Through: Jan. 21, 2013
For more information, www.presidentlincoln.org or call 782-5764.
Emancipation Proclamatin was 'revolutionary act,' historian says
In the introduction to his new book ?Emancipating Lincoln,? historian Harold Holzer notes that revisionist scholarship hasn?t been ?particularly kind? to the 16th president?s Emancipation Proclamation.
The scrutiny of Lincoln?s ?purported motives and mysterious timing for emancipation,? Holzer said, has practically moved Lincoln?s reputation ?from liberator to obstructionist.?
While admitting that the road to issuing the executive order was fraught with complications, Holzer has a word for those revisionists: Relax.
?Everyone looked at (the Emancipation Proclamation) as a revolutionary act, and it changed America,? Holzer said in a telephone interview.? ?It was the beginning of the end of slavery. Lincoln should get credit for dipping his toe into unchartered territory. It was momentous.?
Admittedly not a stirring document, the Emancipation Proclamation 150 years later ?isn?t an easy thing to revisit and look to for inspiration,? said Holzer.
The proclamation never promised freedom to slaves in the border states, which had a fragile union with the North, and because most of the rest of the slaves were behind Confederate lines, the order wasn?t readily enforceable.
The 13th Amendment may have ?sealed the deal? on outlawing slavery, but the Emancipation Proclamation ?made the deal,? Holzer said. He views it in light of the Declaration of Independence, which ?did not automatically free the 13 colonies? but was the impetus for what the revolutionary struggle was about.
In the end, said Holzer, Lincoln knew it was a momentous occasion.? At the private signing ceremony on Jan. 1, 1863, he told those gathered: ?If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act.?
?Then he adds,? said Holzer, ??My whole soul is in it.? ?
? Steven Spearie
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