Citation forThe Rev. C. Welton Gaddy

Presented by The Rev. Dr. Lee Barker
President

There is a core belief among Unitarian Universalists.  It might be put this way.  Theological diversity is and should be one of the great enhancing factors of our human lot.  People of various faith traditions, coming together in appreciation of difference and in an acknowledgement of all we hold in common, widens the spiritual dimension of individuals and reshapes the quality of our public life. 

 Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, we honor you today not just for holding this ideal, for moving our world all the closer to its fulfillment.  

As president of the Interfaith Alliance, yours is a ministry to an organization of more than 150,000 leaders and activists who are dedicated to promoting mutual respect and cooperation.  Drawing on members from more than 75 different religious traditions across 38 states, the mission of the Interfaith Alliance is to promote religion as an active, healing force by bringing people of faith together in dialogue and in political action.  Yours is a ministry of great consequence.  Yours is a ministry that reaches into every precinct of the world.

These are not easy times to conduct such world transforming ministry.  In these times when so many use their religion as a reason to be mistrustful, strident and violent.  In these times when so many refuse to identify intersection of religion and politics. In these times when, as you say, "difference" is placed into the realm of moral value.

You help us to rise above those tendencies, to face down the reality of the times.  As the author of over 20 books, as a frequent guest on national radio and television programs, as a preacher in pulpits throughout the world, you speak truths that turn us to hope.  

You came to this work through progressive religious ranks and you have stayed true to that tradition.  A leading minister among the Southern Baptists, the fundamentalist takeover of that convention placed you on a crossroads.  And you found that you must be true to your more liberal sensitivity.  You threw in with the Alliance of Baptists because you knew such an action better reflected the Christian truth as you understood it and allowed you integrity around issues of biblical theology, pastoral authority, ecclesiastical polity, and governmental relations.

You keep following the hard path, to be sure.  And yet no one who knows you would suspect such a thing for you minister in joy and you live in gratitude.

There are many factors in your life that contribute that spiritual orientation of joy and gratitude. 

No presence in your life is more important than your wife Judy and your family. They lend you comfort and love and support beyond all measure.

It is also true that you have a source of inspiration that most who head up faith based agencies do not have, for even while presiding over the Interfaith Alliance in Washington DC, you continue to serve as pastor of preaching and worship to the Northminster church in Louisiana.   45 weekends a year you commute to Monroe, immersing yourself in congregational life because it keeps you so strongly connected to your God and to your work.

You once wrote about the church in Monroe that it "knows the pain of rejection, the thrill of a new vision, and the invigoration of freedom."  We know enough about ministry around here to know that when one writes such a piece about one's church, one is also speaking about the self.

You have brought to our world these very qualities: your compassion and sorrow over the pain we humans inflict on one another, your sweeping vision rooted in your Christian faith, your insistence that the spiritual life is tied the freedom of all people. 

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