Peace and unity: Where there is unity, there will be peace will be the theme Sunday, Jan. 15, for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration sponsored by the Mount Olive Chapter of the Carver High School Alumni and Friends Association.

The local celebration dates back more than 30 years, said Al Southerland, former Association president.

The public is invited to the celebration that will be held at 3 p.m. at Holy Ghost Cathedral, 812 N. James St.

The Rev. Dr. Jerry Grimes II of Chapel Hill will be the speaker. Music will be by the church mass choir

“Of course, the Alumni Association has been around for 40 years to make sure that the legacy of Carver High School continues,” Southerland noted. “Of course, Dr. King is a person who made it possible that we could do a lot of things.

“So, he is one of those that we feel we should honor every opportunity. The third Sunday in every January we get together and try to have a program so that people won’t forget all that he did for us. We enjoy doing this because of who he was and what he stands for.”

Light refreshments will be served.

While there are no specific COVID protocols, it is “pretty much recommended” that people wear their mask, Southerland pointed out.

“If you don’t feel comfortable wearing a mask, come any way,” he said.

Grimes, a Goldsboro native, is the son of the Rev. James Earl Grimes and Shelia Elaine Grimes He is the father of 4-year-old Alexandria Elaine Grimes.

Grimes spent the first five years of his life in Mount Olive before relocating to Goldsboro in 1982.

A graduate of Goldsboro High School, he received his undergraduate degree from Saint Augustine’s College.

Grimes holds the Master of Divinity from Virginia Union University, the Master of Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary, the Master of Theology from Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Doctor of Ministry from Liberty University.

He has served on the faculty of Shaw University and is currently an instructor in the Religious Studies program at North Carolina Wesleyan University.

Ordained through the Kenansville Eastern Missionary Baptist Association, Grimes served as senior pastor of Peter’s Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Wallace from 2010 to 2019 before serving as senior pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church of Glenwood in south Chicago.

In 2021, Grimes was awarded the prestigious Weiss Fellowship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is currently a graduate assistant, graduate research coordinator, and Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies.

Grimes has since returned to the senior pastorate of Peter’s Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church while completing his Doctor of Philosophy at UNC.