By Marilyn Miller
Church leaders from throughout Webster Parish were honored during the Minden Civitan Club’s 61st annual Clergy Appreciation Banquet Tuesday, Feb. 20 in the assembly room at First Methodist Church.
Civitan President Judy Grubbs emceed the dinner meeting, which was catered by Hugh Woods. Civitan Steve Bryan led the Pledge of Allegiance, while Civitan Johnny McCormick delivered the invocation.
The program was a mixture of classic and new Christian vocal music selections by Lori Booth. She is a member of the Word of Light Faith Church in Springhill. Her presentation included songs that she has written, as well as beloved hymns, and popular contemporary pieces, all used as a testimony delivered in music.
Clerical guests were Steve and Diane Berger, Nicholas Duncan, Carolyn Michael, Todd and Joni Hennigan, Andrea and Tommy Harrison, Leon and Marilyn Boggs, Bill and Dana Mills, Tim and Donna Greer, Naderica Adams, Sam McKinsey, and Bill and Sondra Crider.
Civitans attending were Ed and Janet LaBruyere, Steve Bryan, Joe Holley, Johnny and Keitha Miller, Judy and Roger Grubbs, Danna Hassell, Johnny and Denise McCormick, John Quade, Betty and Charles Purdy, Jim Bates, Paul Morgan, Stephanie Ashcraft, Garrett Holloman, and Steve Warwick.
Civitan Joe Holley led the creed nearing the close of the meeting, which ended with a benediction.
International Clergy Week had its beginnings in mid-1960, when the Albuquerque (NM) Breakfast Civitan Club set aside the time to honor the memory of four clergymen who died aboard the troop transport “Dorchester,” which was torpedoed and sunk in the cold waters of the North Atlantic off Greenland on Feb. 3, 1943. The clergymen were a priest, a rabbi, and two ministers. The men went down with the ship because they had given their life jackets to soldiers who had none. In 1970, President Richard Nixon officially proclaimed the week of Feb. 3 as “Clergy Week.”
