By Quinta Goines

Twenty-five years ago to this week, Greater St. Paul A.M.E. church had Dr. C.C. Baker of Gadsden as the guest speaker of their Men’s Day Program.

Dr. Baker was selected as a speaker for his dynamism and as a role model for men and young boys attending the Men’s Day Program.

St. Paul also had a separate Women’s Day Program in honor of the church’s women.

Shortly after Baker was the guest speaker at the Men’s Day Program in 1990, the church restructured the program into Men and Women’s Day.

Vallanda Baker has been a member of the church as long as she can remember, and she can remember when there were separate programs.

“I have watched the Men and Women’s Day Program go from good to great,” Baker said.

Current pastor Elijah Shafah said over the years the leaders of St. Paul thought it would be in the best interest of the church’s growth to combine the two programs. Since combining the two programs, Men and Women’s Day is the largest of the four annual programs that St. Paul has.

Estar Henderson, one of the program’s chairpersons, said combining the two programs gives church members a chance to participate all together and to create partnerships when planning all of the church’s events.

The theme this year for the worship service is “Equipping Women and Men for the Work of Ministry” based on Nehemiah 4:6. The program will be 10:30 a.m. Sunday, June 28, at 609 East Academy Street in Troy.

Dr. Gwendolyn E. Boyd, president of Alabama State University in Montgomery, will be the speaker for the program.

When selecting a speaker for the program it was important to choose someone who could bring a powerful message to the members and college students who attend their worship service, Shafah said.

“Dr. Boyd is a bona fide speaker, she’s great, she’s a world-renown speaker as well as an ordained A.M.E. pastor,” Shafah said.

Before returning to her hometown of Montgomery, Boyd spent 30 years in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area in the career fields of leadership and public service.

Boyd received her undergraduate degree from ASU, she was the first African-American woman to receive a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and she received Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Boyd’s professional career has ties to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she worked directly with the president of the university from 2001-2014.

Boyd received recognition and nomination from President Barack Obama to serve as a trustee for education for African-Americans for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation in 2009.

Boyd served as the 22nd National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., an international organization with more than 250,000 members.

Boyd is also an ordained minister in the A.M.E. church where she serves as an itinerant elder.

Shafah and church members are preparing for “overflow in the fellowship hall” with their own church members and visitors for the church service.