Archbishop Borys Celebrates Divine Liturgy for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama

On Friday evening, the delegation was welcomed for a dinner at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor during the start of the Civil Rights Movement. The fellows prepared a meal and shared fellowship with local leaders.

Among those present was Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery, whose family secretly housed Freedom Riders during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Dr. Montgomery, a childhood friend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children and an active participant in marches and sit-ins, continues to preserve her family’s legacy through writing and education.

Also in attendance at the dinner was Kacey Keeton, a civil rights attorney known for her work on systemic injustice in Alabama’s criminal legal system. Keeton defends individuals on death row and served as a spiritual advisor to one of her clients who was ultimately executed.

At the conclusion of the dinner, Archbishop Borys led the group in prayer, offering an excerpt from the Akathist to Our Savior, Healer of the Wounds of American Slavery. Following the prayer, Dr. Montgomery was presented with an icon of the Pietà, depicted as a Black mother mourning the death of her son, which moved her to tears.

The liturgy and dinner served as the spiritual culmination of a weeklong pilgrimage through the American South by fellows of the St. Gabriel Institute. It was co-organized by the St. Gabriel Institute, in collaboration with Razom for Ukraine, and focused on studying the moral and spiritual legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement. Over the course of the week, participants visited historic sites in Montgomery and Birmingham and encountered individuals whose lives have been shaped by the struggle for human dignity.