Chapel Hill’s Binkley Memorial Baptist Church held a virtual memorial service for its first pastor and local civil rights activist Robert Seymour on Sunday.
Live-streamed on the church’s social media accounts, the service honored the pastor who passed away on October 11 at 95 years old. Friends, family and community members eulogized the former reverend known for his work fighting for racial integration in the 1960s, the rights of local homeless populations and many more causes.
“We’re gathered virtually because we have to be,” said current Binkley Memorial Baptist pastor Marcus McFaul, hinting at the coronavirus pandemic preventing an in-person service. “One of the fears I had as the pandemic has worn on was that we would get to this day and not able to be together. But this is a way for us to be together.”
McFaul shared words about Seymour’s legacy for his church, where the former reverend served as its first pastor and separated it from most Southern Baptist institutions in the 1960s by promoting messages of inclusion and racial justice. Seymour also championed these causes in the broader community, establishing long friendships with some of the most prominent local figures during the Civil Rights Movement.
McFaul used one of those relationships to explain the community need to celebrate Seymour’s life, despite the man himself likely being too humble to accept one.
“When Bob delivered the benediction at the public service for Coach Dean Smith,” described McFaul, “he said he had been privileged to have a 55-year friendship with [the former UNC men’s basketball coach] and that all of our hearts were gathered around two emotions: grief and gratitude. And [Seymour] said then what I say today, “He didn’t need it…but we’ve needed to do this.”
Another one of those figures impacted by Seymour was former Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee, who also spoke during Sunday’s service. Lee said he first visited Binkley Baptist in 1964 to worship with a predominantly white congregation for the first time. He credited Seymour’s influence, message and presence as being so comforting it led to Lee and his wife becoming congregation members. Lee also described Seymour as a mentor and one of his heroes, who will live on through the many lives he touched.
“It is possible that I would not have been elected mayor of Chapel Hill had Bob not encouraged me to run,” said Lee. “Some thought my candidacy could create too much tension in the community because I had not lived here long enough. But not Bob…he thought Chapel Hill could use a little tension, which he seemed to get great pleasure out of providing occasionally. Of course, the rest is history.”
U.S. Congressman David Price, who represents Chapel Hill in North Carolina’s 4th district, also spoke to how Seymour helped broaden his perspectives and drive his political career as a mentor. Price knew Seymour from attending services in Mars Hill when he was a junior college student, and then found the pastor again after moving to attend UNC.
“I followed Bob to Chapel Hill from Mars Hill in about six months to Binkley Church,” Price said on Sunday. “The sit-ins were sweeping across our region [in the 1960s.] Bob helped me, and many like me, to understand the social, political and religious changes that were afoot…the kind of changes we needed to make.”
James Pike, who served as a pastor for Binkley Memorial Baptist beginning in 1996, echoed these thoughts of Price. He likened Seymour’s work to one of the jigsaw puzzles the reverend was known to enjoy assembling, saying Seymour was inspired by faith to see an issue and work with others to assemble a way to address it. According to Pike, that will be one of his most lasting legacies.
“His was a powerful and progressive voice for civil rights, for human rights, for racial justice,” said Pike. “Clearly that is still a puzzle in process that you and I, in his honor, are called to help complete.”
The full memorial service honoring the life of Rev. Robert Seymour can be found on the Binkley Memorial Baptist Church Facebook and YouTube pages.
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