Feb 16, 2007 2 min read

Penn Highlands Teens For Christ is urging all local churches to observe Amazing Grace Sunday this week by singing “Amazing Grace’ and remembering the date as the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade in England. Penn Highlands released the following information: “Christian political activist William Wilberforce and future Prime Minister William Pitt began the campaign with the help of Wilberforce’s elderly pastor, the Rev. John Newton. Newton was once a slave ship captain who, after his conversion to Christ, penned the immortal hymn ‘Amazing Grace.”

“Newton considered himself the most miserable of sinners and Christ the great Savior,’ said the Rev. Peter Malik, director of Teens For Christ. “That is why he wrote the words ‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He based his hymn on John 9:25, which says, ‘One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see.’ He spent the rest of his life combating the very evil of which he was once a part.’

On Feb. 23, the actual anniversary of Wilberforce and Newton’s victory in Parliament, the movie “Amazing Grace’ will be released in theaters. The Rev. Travis Deans, Teens For Christ director, urges parents to take their children to the movie.

For more information, visit www.amazinggracemovie.com and www.amazinggracesunday.com.