[Episcopal News Service – Keene, New Hampshire] As part of a weekend commemoration of Jonathan Daniels’ martyrdom on Aug. 20, 1965, a group of his early friends gathered at his home parish, St. James Episcopal Church, on Aug. 22 to reminisce during a public panel discussion about the seminarian and civil rights worker who was killed when he was 26 years old.

The five, Ted Aldrich, Anne Mccune, Bob Perry, Tony Redington and the Rev. Carlton Russell, formed the panel and conversed for just more than an hour. The video features some of the highlights of the discussion, which was moderated by Keene State College professor Lawrence Benaquist. He can be heard at times in the background. Benaquist and fellow Keene State professor William Sullivan produced the 1999 nearly hour-long documentary Here Am I, Send Me: The Story of Jonathan Daniels. (The documentary, narrated by actor Sam Waterston, is viewable here.)

Daniels died in Hayneville, Alabama, by stepping in front of a shotgun aimed at Ruby Sales.

The Episcopal Church added Daniels to its Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar of commemorations in 1994. His feast day is Aug. 14, the day of his arrest.

Sales preached during a commemorative Eucharist at St. James on Aug. 23. The Eucharist was followed by a 2.3-mile “walk of remembrance” to the Daniels’ family gravesite in Monadnock View Cemetery for a service.

– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.