To the Officers and Members of Gethsemane:
I give thanks to God for how He has blessed our beloved church for 110 years of Christian Mission and Ministry. To say that God has been good to us is a gross understatement because God has been more than simply good to us. God has
blessed us beyond the wildest imaginations of our Pastor James T. Harvey and the charter members of our church as a congregation.
We have survived 2 World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, wars in Iraq and Kuwait and number of other military engagements. We have seen the political pendulum swing back and forth from right and the left and endured Presidents
(from William H. Taft to Joseph R. Biden) who literally comprise the good, the bad and the ugly. We have survived two global pandemics, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and other economical downtown turns that could have caused
us to close our church doors, but in the words of a song Sister Clara Wills used to sing: “I’m (we’re) still here”! Indeed, we are better than blessed and God continues shower us with blessing on top of blessings.
On September 18, 2022 we were blessed to have our 5th pastor, Rev. Dr. Kenneth E. Lee, to remind us to “Stay in the Race”. Our guest musician, Sister Shirli Hughes, made our hearts happy with the sterling medley of the favorite songs of
the pastors of Gethsemane and then she raised the bar with a stunning rendition of Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Furthermore, the elegant Sister Ella Redmond eloquently captivated the congregation as reflected on the history of our beloved church. Finally, Brother Edmundo Lambert, Sister Annie Graham and Sister Dorothy Fields were recipients of our annual Good and Faithful Servant Awards.
Our 110 th church anniversary was the largest gathering of the flock for a Sunday worship service in almost 3 years when the Covid 19 pandemic forced us to create new options for staying connected. While I thank God for giving us the tools and technology to worship, meet and study virtually—yet, there is nothing better than when God’s people can assemble in the same place to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Again, Happy Anniversary and remember: the best is yet to come!
Pastor K