1,200 to attend Baptist convention

YOUNGSTOWN — About 1,200 delegates and young people will attend sessions on leadership and spiritual training during the 102nd annual session of the Northern Ohio Baptist District Association Inc. planned Monday through Friday at New Bethel Baptist Church, 1507 Hillman St.

The highlight of the convention will be a banquet Tuesday at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty honoring the Rev. Lonnie K.A. Simon, pastor emeritus of New Bethel and a past moderator of the association.

He will receive the association’s highest honor, the Moderator’s Humanitarian Award, which will be presented by the Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc.

The Rev. Mr. Simon, 82, served as moderator of the Eastern Ohio Baptist Association for eight years, from 1968-76, and as moderator of the Northern Ohio Baptist Association from 1994-97.

On the national level, Mr. Simon participated in the March on Montgomery with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 and in the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., in 1967. He served as a coordinator for Jesse Jackson for President Campaign of the 17th Congressional District of Ohio in 1984 and 1988.

He is featured in “Who’s Who in Black America.”

Mr. Simon, who was inducted into the International Society of Poets, is the author of “Poetry and Wise Sayings — Songs of Simon” and “Simon Says It Again.” He is working on “Sermons by Simon” and his autobiography, “Acts of Simon.”