WatchNight: Escorting the New Year in With Prayer

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware | Word In Black(WIB) – On Dec. 31, 1862, cloaked by what likely was a cold, dark night in the dead of winter, groups of Americans of African descent — some free, others still enslaved — gathered together in secret. As a bloody war over their place in the nation raged, the African Americans took part in an age-old religious tradition of Wesleyan origin, marking the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another with prayer and reflection. Instead of somber reflection on past sins and prayers to God for obedience and grace, however, the Black men, women, and children who huddled in dank cellars, in ramshackle slave quarters, or outdoors under the stars, waited anxiously as midnight slowly approached, when the Emancipation Proclamation would take effect& — marking what they hoped would be freedom for themselves and their loved ones.& RELATED:& ‘God Is Good All the Time’ in the Black ChurchMost people in the Black community are familiar with Watch Night, one of the oldest cultural traditions of New Year’s Eve. Marked with late-night worship services in church, the event is usually followed by a fellowship meal or a love feast. The...