Forrest Church Receives Prestigious Award from Unitarian Universalist Association
June 23, 2008
Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan, is the 2008 recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service to the Cause of Unitarian Universalism from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). UUA President Rev. William G. Sinkford will present the Award for Distinguished Service to Rev. Church on June 28, 2008, at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Award for Distinguished Service, one of the most prestigious awards given by the Unitarian Universalist Association, recognizes those who have strengthened the institutions of Unitarian Universalism or clarified the message of Unitarian Universalism in an extraordinary way.
“I am proud to receive this reward because it sets its recipient not apart from but as a part of the great Unitarian Universalist tradition, testifying to a lifetime of shared effort and shared accomplishment. To serve a movement is to be shaped and changed by it. My life's work owes everything to the open embrace of Unitarian Universalism,” said Church. “I am pleased that whatever attention I have received from my writings and public theology has raised the Unitarian Universalist profile, drawing people to explore our chosen faith.”
Rev. Church has ministered for thirty years at Unitarian Church of All Souls, where he is now the Minister of Public Theology. The approximately two dozen books that he has authored or edited include Our Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism (Beacon, 1989), The American Creed (St. Martins, 2002), and the upcoming Love & Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow (Beacon, September 2008).
Rev. Church has earned degrees at Stanford University (A.B., 1970), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., 1974), and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Early Church History (1978). In April of 2008, Church received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal, awarded by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
The Award for Distinguished Service was first given in 1949 by the American Unitarian Association. Past recipients include Senator Joseph S. Clark, Rev. Dr. James Luther Adams, and Rev. Dr. Carl Scovel.
The Unitarian Universalist Association is a faith community of more than 1000 self-governing congregations that bring to the world a vision of religious freedom, tolerance and social justice.
Contacts:
Shelby Meyerhoff, Public Witness Specialist
Unitarian Universalist
Association
(617) 948-6103
pw_specialist @ uua.org
Rev. Forrest Church, Minister of Public Theology
All Souls Church
revchurch @ aol.com
If you would like to receive Rev. Church's biography and color headshot, please email pw_specialist @ uuaorg
For more information about the Unitarian Church of All Souls, please visit their website.
The text of the award citation will be available after June 28, 2008.
Last updated on Monday, June 23, 2008.
