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Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium

Sounding the ‘Trumpet of Conscience:’ Episcopal Honors Martin Luther King Jr. in Ninth Symposium


The ninth annual MLK Day Symposium welcomed Dr. Régine Jean-Charles, author of “Martin Luther King and The Trumpet of Conscience Today,” as the keynote speaker and a facilitator for one of our student workshops. On the eve of Symposium day, students gathered by grade to view and discuss episodes of the award-winning PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize” to contextualize the era of Dr. King’s work.

“To retain the value of Dr. King’s legacy in a perennial, generational sense, it’s vital that each student — tomorrow’s leaders — listen for, decipher, and heed the call of their own ‘trumpet of conscience,’ their moral compass,” explained Louis Smith, Director of the Office of Community & Equity. “We did our best to set up a day that is focused on teaching students how to do that and inspiring them to exercise that capacity.”

On the Symposium day itself, our students gathered for two hours of community-wide service in partnership with IRUSA. We assembled 40,000 meals for food-insecure families in Alexandria and the wider DMV area. Students then participated in workshops on topics like: developing into leaders; exploring scriptural bases for the civil rights movement; and grappling with the philosophy behind King’s “Trumpet of Conscience” sermons. In the afternoon, Dr. Jean-Charles addressed the School in a keynote address that captured students’ curiosity for 30 minutes of robust Q&A afterwards. The day concluded with a Vespers chapel service featuring roughly 70 students, gathered as Episcopal’s Gospel Choir and led by guest conductor Michele Fowlin of The National Cathedral. Thank you to all involved for making it such an impactful program!

Watch this recap video, view photos, and watch the service.
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