Public Watch Night Services Friday

YOUNGSTOWN

The congregations of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, Church of the Living Word and the Greater St. John Church of God In Christ of Warren will join Bethel Church of God in Christ, 3147 Glenwood Ave., for Watch Night Joint Heirs’ Celebration Services on Friday.

The services will begin at 9:30 p.m.

The featured preacher will be Pastor Jeffery Stanford.

Other participating clergy include the Rev. Dr. Lewis W. Macklin II and host pastor Superintendent Ross Johnson.

The public is invited.

Watch Night observances can be traced back to 1733 in what is now the Czech Republic, but current day observances in this country are most associated with New Year's Eve services in black churches. Those services are commonly associated with New Year's Eve in 1862 when black Americans awaited the full realization of the Emancipation Proclamation.