A Men’s Day-Homecoming celebration was held last weekend at Hughes Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 53rd and Ames St. in northeast D.C., where the Rev. Paul Wesley Johnson serves as pastor.
Armed with the theme, “Transformed Men to Transformed Communities,” guest speaker Blake Morant, former dean and current professor at George Washington University Law School, delivered a compelling message at the Sunday celebration.
Morant, the first African American to serve in his capacity at GWU’s law school, discussed the common threads of kindness and civility among people learned from his travels across the country and abroad, as well as his interactions with the likes of D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and the late poet Maya Angelou.
At one point, Morant asked the congregation to raise their hands if they were born in D.C., and seeing the low response, he encouraged them to return to the city, despite ongoing gentrification efforts that caused many to leave.
“Let us make sure that our community is in the lead in this transformation,” Morant said. “It matters, we matter. We need to have in our hearts a message from God that spurs us to treat one another with love and compassion, a common theme that links humans all over the world.”