The Greater Harlem Parish Watch Night Service

Please join us as we come together as The Greater Harlem Cooperative Parish to reflect on 2020, look towards 2021 and worship in the name of Christ.

There are multiple ways to participate:
1) Salem’s Website: click HERE or navigate to our LIVE STREAM tab

2) Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/SalemHarlem

3) Zoom:  https://zoom.us/j/285728983    Dial-in:   929-205-6099 or 312-626-6799   Meeting ID: 285 728 983

HISTORY OF WATCH NIGHT SERVICE
The tradition of Watch Night may be traced to the early 18th century in Moravian churches, when churchgoers began marking the occasion with a vigil to reflect upon the year past and to contemplate the one to come. John Wesley adopted the practice for his Methodist followers, who held similar vigils monthly with the full moon. It was given new significance among African Americans on December 31, 1862, when, according to tradition, slaves in the Confederate states gathered in churches and private homes on the night before U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was expected to go into effect, pending his signing of the document. The soon-to-be-free slaves stayed awake all night and watched the night turn into a new dawn while waiting for news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, thus making all the slaves legally free.