GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Civitan Club honored local clergy for their annual Clergy Appreciation Week on Feb. 6 at the Legion Building in Granite Quarry.
Special guests from the Granite Quarry community included the Rev. Randy Foster of Maupin Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Dr. W. C. Gaither Jr. of Lyerly Memorial Church, the Rev. Carol Hallman of First United Church of Christ, the Rev. Stephen Haines of First Methodist Church, the Rev. Rick Williams of St. Paul Episcopal Church and the Rev. Ed Harper of Haven Lutheran Church and the club’s chaplain.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Neely Gaston, chief operations officer of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. Gaston is also an ordained Presbyterian pastor and serves a congregation in Chester County, S.C.
Clergy Appreciation Week is held annually to recognize the heroism of four U.S. army chaplains during World War II who were aboard the U.S. troopship Dorchester on February 3, 1943.
When the ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic, these men of different faiths worked together to evacuate the soldiers, ultimately giving their lives by offering up their own life jackets.