DEMOREST — For the second year in a row, the Southeast Conference United Church of Christ will hold its annual meeting at Piedmont College in Demorest.
Some 125 ministers and lay leaders from UCC churches in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida will be on campus June 11-13 for a series of meetings, worship services, elections, and special presentations.
A highlight of the three-day meeting will be the Convocation, beginning at 1:30 p.m., Friday, June 12, in the Swanson Center for Performing Arts and Communications. Piedmont Chaplain Ashley Cleere said the college will present an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Atlanta educator and civil rights pioneer Lonnie C. King, Jr.
A longtime member of Rush Memorial Congregational United Church of Christ in Atlanta, King helped form local and national civil rights organizations, including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s.
King graduated from Morehouse College in 1969 and earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Baltimore. He has held teaching positions from the elementary to the collegiate level. In 2010 he opened the Peachtree Hope Charter School in Atlanta and plans to organize more charter schools to open doors of opportunity and achievement for disadvantaged children.
Leader of the annual meeting will be the Rev. June Boutwell, Designated Conference Minister of the Southeast Conference. Presenters will include the Rev. Elizabeth Dilley, Minister for Ministers in Local Churches from the UCC national office in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Rev. Denise A. Bell, Regional Minister and CEO of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Georgia.
Piedmont College is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and provides scholarships for students who are members of UCC churches.
