Where will you ring in 2004? As the New Year rolls around, that is a question whose answer will be found amid the pages of New Year's Eve party planners as many will bid farewell to 2003 at the best restaurants, bars and parties in town.
Many more, however, will be searching the pages of Bible as they celebrate the entrance of the new year with prayers, songs and testimonials of thanksgiving to God as part of Watch Night Services. The service has become a tradition among many residents in The T&D Region, particularly African-Americans.
"When we talk about Watch Night Service for us, it is to undergird the concept of thanking God for all that has taken place in our lives. The secular world talks about New Year's resolutions, whereas in the African-American Church, our resolutions settled along the scriptures," said the Rev. Eddie Williams, pastor of North Orangeburg United Methodist Church.
A centuries-old tradition originating in the ante-bellum South Carolina Lowcountry, Watch Night was celebrated by slaves on New Year's Eve, often lasting until dawn of the brand new year. It was the culmination of a week-long gathering that began on Christmas Eve when some planters allowed their slaves to celebrate with neighboring family and friends.
The special week came to an end with a New Year's Eve vigil that began early in the evening in a church or a praise house and featured songs, prayer and a "watchman." In the midst of the prayers and songs, the watchman would be asked what time it was, and he would then tell the congregation the time.
Following prayers, singing and testimonials, most parishioners at churches where Watch Night is celebrated are on their knees praying as the clock strikes midnight. Most will then congregate in fellowship halls for a joyful feast of love and unity.
"It's a time to really thank God through prayer," Williams said. The service is held at night, representative of "the dark lives" Christians want to change in the coming year with God's help, he said. Christians gather at the altar in prayer on the heels of the dawning of a brand new year, representative of the light they will find in Christ with prayerful commitments "to get closer to him," Williams said.
Recalling the ancestral history of African-Americans, Williams said it was customary to be in church when the New Year came in. Even with the oppression of slavery, "they still had joy, and the strong loyalty, trust and obedience that they had for God is still profound today."
"It can be traced back to the Bible in the book of Joshua, where it reads, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,'" Williams said. His congregation will join two other houses of worship, Edisto Fork United Methodist Church and Trinity United Methodist Church, for their own Watch Night Service. It's all about gathering families together to praise and worship God, Williams said.
Pastor Gerald Fleming of Gospel Light Baptist Church in Orangeburg will also be holding Watch Night Services. Fleming's congregation will hold its celebration of joyous song and praise with the parishioners of Orangeburg Baptist Tabernacle.
"We have it to bring the new year in with families in prayer. So many people think of New Year's as a time to go out and party and get drunk and all these kinds of things, but they can't do that with their families. We have a time of prayer," Fleming said.
"Prayer is talking with God, and the Bible says, 'You have not because you ask not,' but yet at the same time, people today leave God out of their lives altogether. People need to wake up and see that the Lord's return is imminent, and this whole world is getting more wicked all the time," Fleming said.
Bringing in the new year in prayer, particularly within the family, is the key to having a prosperous new year, he said.
"I'm going in another direction, but we have so many problems in our schools today because we have taken God out, but the real problem is that we have taken God out of our families," Fleming said.
The Rev. Marvin Clark, pastor of First Southern Methodist Church in Orangeburg, said while his church will not hold a traditional Watch Night Service, the church's regularly scheduled prayer service will fall on New Year's Eve this year.
"We'll dedicate more time to prayer than we normally do. That's what I hope to be getting out of this prayer service and every day of this coming year. It's a daily commitment," Clark said, stressing that the church belongs to God and there is an expectation for God's people to live lives that are pleasing to him. "We need to trust in Jesus Christ more and pray for the Holy Spirit to work in hearts and lives. We can't change them, but God can," Walker said.
T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534.