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"Lift Ev'ry voice and sing

"Till earth and heaven ring

"Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

"Let our rejoicing rise ..."

NORTH ATTLEBORO Pews were filled and extra seats had to be added at the John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church to accommodate the crowd that gathered Monday for a spirited interfaith service dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The "Negro National Anthem," partially quoted above, accompanied a processional of clergy, speakers, and members of the King Memorial Committee of Greater Attleboro. It was the 21st anniversary of the annual celebration.

"Remember, Celebrate, Act: King's Hope for Global Peace," was the theme of the program, which featured keynote speakers Professor Mark Auslander, from the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis University, and Panther Alier and Mangok Bol, former "Lost Boys" of the Sudan.

Musical selections at the interfaith service included not only traditional black and Christian songs, but a number of offerings with Hebrew roots from clergy members Sergei and Galina Kouptsov of Temple Olive Tree in Boston, leading with the shofar, the traditional Hebrew call to prayer.

Many in the congregation were visibly moved, eyes closed, lips moving with the words, arms up, hands out as if reflecting the vibrations back to the front of the church. The ancient Hebrew benediction, "Shalom, Shalom," was sung with great feeling, along with clapping in unison to the familiar rhythm.

A moment of silence was held in recognition of the 40th anniversary of King's assassination, which took place on April 4, 1968, the day after King gave his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, in which he said he wasn't worried about dying.

Auslander, a highly acclaimed cultural anthropologist, has helped found the Southern Sudan Cultural Documentation Center at Brandeis in an attempt to preserve the heritage of the land that has been under warfare for virtually the last 23 years. At Brandeis, founded by and highly attended by Jews, haunting parallels between the Sudanese diaspora and the Jewish Holocaust experience are deeply felt.

Alier's story begins with his having been orphaned at just four years old. An aunt raised him until civil war in Sudan separated them in 1987. Fleeing a massive attack staged on his village by the northern Sudanese army, Alier, along with hundreds of other children, trekked thousands of miles to Ethiopia. Together, they spent four years in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, when yet another civil war broke out in that country in 1991. They walked for thousands of miles to Kenya, then spent nine years in a refugee camp under extremely harsh conditions.

Bol's similar desperate journey began with his flight from home at age seven because it was being attacked, during the second war in the Sudan. He said some who fled the village and survived began the trek to a place others assured them was safe.

"Along the way his group faced many dangers including other hostile tribes, wild animals, the harsh African environment and hunger. After months of walking, Bol and his tribe finally reached refugee camps in Kenya in 1992." (From his introduction by Ethel Garvin, chairperson for the memorial committee). Alier, Bol and some 3,800 other young Sudanese, called "The Lost Boys," were settled in the United States in 2001. Both Alier and Bol have achieved high levels of success in this short time, and continue to learn and to work for the dream that King held.

In Auslander's words, "Dr. King's dream was not only for people of color in the United States, but for subjugated people in Africa and around the world."

City Hall observance

Prior to the interfaith service at the Church, an observance was held at Attleboro City Hall, where a proclamation issued by Mayor Kevin Dumas, was read by Attleboro Municipal Council President Frank Cook.

State Rep. John A. Lepper; Vice President of the Attleboro Municipal Council Walter Thibideau; State Rep. Elizabeth A. Poirier, and State Sen. Scott P. Brown also spoke of King's legacy and how we must all strive to achieve equality.

The Norton High School Chorus performed, under the direction of Kyla Polak.