Dr. Bob Hamblin to Portray Clarence Jordan at First Baptist Church on June 28th

Dr. Robert Hamblin, a professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, will present "Great Cloud of Witnesses: Clarence Jordan on the History of First Baptist Church" in morning worship at 10:45 a.m., Sunday, June 28th, at First Baptist Church, 1289 Lexington Avenue, Cape Girardeau.

Jordan (pronounced Jurden), a legendary Baptist preacher who died in 1969, and his wife, Florence, founded Koinonia Farm, a communal, biracial fellowship near Americus, Ga., in 1942. The group was subjected to years of violence and threats from the Ku Klux Klan, but the farm survives today as both a working farm and a religious center promoting peace, inclusiveness and nonviolence.

Jordan is also well-known as the author of "Cotton Patch Gospels," a translation of the New Testament into the Southern vernacular. Jordan and Koinonia Farm heavily influenced Millard and Linda Fuller, the founders of Habitat for Humanity, as well as President Jimmy Carter.

Hamblin's Chautauqua-type impersonation of Jordan will focus on what Jordan might say to First Baptist Church upon its 175th Anniversary this year.

Hamblin is a professor of English and director of the Center of Faulkner Studies at Southeast. During his 44-year career, he has directed seminars for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Missouri Humanities Council; taught and lectured in England, The Netherlands, China, Taiwan and Japan; taught a Faulkner novel over the Internet to Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.

He has authored or coauthored 18 books, including "A William Faulkner Encyclopedia" and several other scholarly works on Faulkner; a book on college basketball, "Win or Win: A Season with Ron Shumate"; and three books of poems. He is a deacon at First Baptist Church.

The public is invited.