A blessed city
Destin's Week of Blessings scheduled for May 27-31
For more than half a century, local pastors, fishermen, residents and tourists have gathered on Ascension Day for the annual Blessing of the Fleet. The event, now in its 62nd year, is one of Destin’s longest standing traditions and has turned into a Week of Blessings for the entire city of Destin.
The Blessing of the Fleet first began in 1958 with only a handful of fishing boats in the Destin fishing fleet to participate. Since then, it has grown into the largest fishing fleet in North America with more than 125 fishing charter boats.
After moving to the area years ago, Captain Mike Parker was asked to pray with the other clergy during the ceremony. As the popularity of the ceremony grew, Parker had the idea to make it a week-long event.
“I was sitting there and I thought how great it was to bless our local fishermen but then I thought, ‘What about the rest of the city?’" he said.
Little did he know that then-city councilman and now State Representative Mel Ponder also had the same idea.
Without any previous knowledge of each other, both Ponder and Parker spoke to Father Mike Hesse of Immanuel Anglican Church about expanding the blessing to the whole community within two weeks of each other.
The Week of Blessings was born.
This year’s week marks the 16th Week of Blessings and kicks off with the Blessing of the Families at participating local churches on Sunday.
On Monday, everyone is encouraged to share their faith with at least one other person.
“Talk to somebody about your faith; strike up a conversation,” Parker said.
Local pastors and their teams will go out into the community for Pastoral Ministry Day on Tuesday. The teams visit local nonprofits, government entities and organizations to bring lunch and pray over the staff members.
The Blessing of the Marketplace will take place on Wednesday in the Life Center of Destin United Methodist Church. Hundreds of business owners, first responders and government representatives will gather for a lunch provided by Ole Times Country Buffet and pray over those in our community.
The Blessing of the Marketplace has been so successful that other cities have used it as a model for their own Blessing of the Marketplace. From neighboring cities like Niceville, Fort Walton Beach and South Walton to Sebring, New Zealand and and some places in Austrailia, Parker said the event's reach has amazed him.
“It brings me so much joy to think that other cities are using us as a model,” he said. “To this day it has continued to expose Destin in a lot of ways.”
The 62nd annual Blessing of the Fleet will take place on May 30 at the Destin Fishing Fleet Marina. A service will take place at 4 p.m. with the boat blessing immediately following at 5 p.m. A fish fry will be provided from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Even if you aren’t a religious person, Parker still encourages you to attend.
“Just come and watch,” he said. “You have a fair amount of fishermen that aren’t going to be in church. They aren’t church attenders, but they have faith in God. There’s a lot of them that are men of faith but there are some that aren’t, too.”
The week will wrap up on May 31 with a day of prayer and fasting.
“Just find something to fast that day,” Ponder said. “It could be a TV show, social media, or food, just something that reminds you that you’re fasting for the heartbeat of the city and the body of Christ.”
To participate in the Blessing of the Fleet, boat captains/owners must register their boats in advance by going to destinblessings.com or emailing their boat name, captain's name, mailing address, email address and phone number to immanuel@iacdestin.org.
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