Page 2 - Volume 3 2016
P. 2

Watch Night /Watch Party

                             In late summer of this year a group of individuals representing
                             local businesses, organizations and churches met to ensure
                             the visibility of Washington, DC during the opening of the
                             National Museum of African American History and Culture in
                             the fall of 2016. While this was a national celebration, the city
                             formed the DC Host Committee to ensure the visibility of this
                             event through local businesses, organizations and churches.

“Methodism and the Negro”     It was decided that various sites
                              would hold watch parties to allow
Additions to the Collection:  visitors, members and friends to

 Papers from Dr. Charles     gather in community to watch this historic event. "Watch
  and Mrs. Marie White       Night," according to bartleby.com, can properly refer either to New Year's Eve or to a religious
 Copher. Dr. Copher was      service held on New Year's Eve. Under either usage, it is likely a term unfamiliar to most, in that
                             the observance of "watch nights" among Christians has devolved into primarily an African-
       one of the first      American practice. Watch Night is celebrated among by congregants 'gathering at their
  professionally trained     churches on the last evening of the year to attend special services that typically commence
 African American biblical
scholars earning a Ph. D in                                           between 7 and 10 pm and continue through midnight into
 the Old Testament from                                                the New Year. These services are regarded by participants
Boston University in 1947.                                             as a time to reflect upon and give thanks for the departing
  He went on to serve as                                               year and pray for the future, a spiritual way of celebrating a
  faculty and held other                                               largely secular holiday. Many churches embrace them as an
administrative positions at                                            alternative to the rowdy partying and drinking often
   Gammon Theological                                                  associated with New Year's Eve.
   Seminary and at the
   Interdenominational                                       Yet as strongly as Watch Night is now linked to the black
Theological Seminary (ITC)                                   community, its observance did not originate with that
 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr.                                    group, nor did it begin on December 31 1862, the night
  Copher also published                                      before the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect.
   Black Biblical Studies:                                   Watch Night began with the Moravians, a small Christian
 Biblical and Theological                                    denomination whose roots live in what is the present day
                                                             Czech Republic. The first such service is believed to have
    Issues on the Black                                      been held in 1733 on the estates of Count Nicholas con
 Presence in the Bible: An
  Anthology of Charles B.    Zinzendorf in Hernut, Germany.

       Copher (1993).        John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, picked it up from the Moravians,
   Seven volumes of the      incorporating a Watch Night vigil into the practices of his denomination. Methodist Watch
African American Mission     Nights were held once a month and on full moons, with the first such service in the United
 Albums (called Negro in     States taking place in 1770 at Old St. George's Church in Philadelphia. Watch Night services
the 1930’s) documenting      survive to the present day as a “Covenant Renewal Service in the United Methodist Book of
                             Worship. As to what was being "watched over" in those earlier services, it was one's covenant
      the work of the
 Freedman’s Aid Society
 which became a part of
the Board of Education of
 the Methodist Episcopal
church in the early 1920’s,
  were recently digitized

     and added to the
         collection.

     Papers from the         with God. These gatherings were a time for congregants to meditate on their state of grace —
 library of Ms. Charlotte    were they spiritually ready to meet their maker if the call were suddenly to come? As Mark 13:
Meade of Fairmont, West      35, says, the faithful need to be ever vigilant, because the hour of the Lord's coming is not
                             known.
    Virginia containing
 historical records about    The end-of-year Watch Night of 1862 took on special significance attaching to the impending
 the early years of Black    January 1, 1863 enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that night has come to be
 Methodists for Church       known as "Freedom's Eve." On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued his Preliminary
                             Emancipation Proclamation, which stated: "On the first day of January ... all persons held as
  Renewal (BMCR) and
 information about local
 African American Laity

        and Clergy.

Papers from the library of   slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in
     Thelma Randall of       rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." Lincoln
                             subsequently issued the Emancipation Proclamation itself on January 1, 1863.
Catonsville, MD containing
 historical records about
            BMCR.
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