Few people are called “giants of moral courage,” but Dr. William Sloane Coffin Jr. earned that distinction. His death April 12 opened up a floodgate of remembrances of his strongly engaging personality and nonviolent struggles for peace.

Among things remembered, National Ministries’ coordinator of Intercultural Ministry – Reconciliation, Rev. Dwight Lundgren, noted that Coffin received the highest honor American Baptist Churches USA grants: the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award. The award presentation of 1973 states that Coffin was chosen for “his deep concern for people and his respect for those who differ with him; for his love of country and prophetic insight which leads him to oppose injustice wherever it is found; for his commitment to Christ in seeking reconciliation between nations and warring peoples.”

Poignant, personal remembrances being shared in the past few weeks reflect Coffin’s deep concern for people. The National Council of Churches (NCC) has received hundreds of these in response to its invitation to write a “Dear Bill” letter, many of which already appear at www.faithfulamerica.org. NCC’s Faithful America plans to compile them in a booklet for his widow, Randy, and grieving family members and friends.

Commenting on a massive response to the invitation, Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA said, “All of us know, objectively, that Bill was a great man, a faithful follower of Jesus and — like his Lord — a tireless advocate of peace, love and justice. We also know, objectively, that Bill was famous. ... But the thing about Bill was, he never let it get in his way. Thousands of people who never saw him on television, or standing in the historic pulpit of Riverside Church, didn’t know he was famous. His common touch was genuine and effortless.” Thousands who did not even know him personally considered Bill Coffin a friend.

Brooks Harrington, from Fort Worth, Texas, wrote about being on the Yale campus in 1966, when Coffin was university chaplain and pastor of the Church of Christ at Yale. Harrington, whom Coffin took under his wing, claims, “I gave up the wealth of trial law for inner-city ministry partly because of you.” Commenting on Coffin’s “life force” that he has not observed in anyone else, Harrington also laments, “Where, O where, is the new Bill Coffin?”

Judy Loehr, who encountered Coffin at Vanderbilt Divinity School in the early 90s, when he taught there, calls him, “Brilliant, risk-taking, a person willing to speak the truth at all times, while also being compassionate, kind and having an incredible sense of humor.” She credits Coffin with “transforming” her life.

Coffin was a Presbyterian minister for 50 years. During an address delivered at the celebration of Coffin’s life, Bill Moyers, president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, said Coffin stated he would rather not be remembered as a peace activist, because his “happiest moments were in intimate settings of the pastor’s calling.” Moyers therefore said, Coffin “had the pastor’s heart but he heeded the prophet’s calling.”

In a sermon Coffin prepared for Peace Sunday at Riverside Church, Riverside, N.Y., where he served as senior minister from 1977-’87, he reflected on Jesus weeping over Jerusalem: “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:42) Then he called on people to have the moral courage to refuse to willingly sacrifice their most precious beliefs in pursuit of an illusory security. “Obviously, to be at peace with the world, you have to be at peace with yourself,” he remarked. Less obvious, he went on to say, was the need to have a self to be at peace with.

As activist, preacher, spokesman and organizer, Coffin opened many eyes to things that make for peace, especially to a fearless, generous and magnanimous self, created in the image of God. “There are hundreds of Christian people who are braver and more faithful than we would have been without him,” said Dr. David Bartlett, professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary and ordained minister of American Baptist Churches USA.

American Baptists will observe Peace Sunday on May 7. For educational resources and to learn about grassroots initiatives your church can pursue, visit www.faithfulsecurity.org.

The Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award was founded in 1964 to give recognition primarily to American Baptists who have worked constructively for peace, with justice and freedom. Although Dahlberg was controversial among fellow American Baptists when he advocated pacifism during World War II, the highly regarded peace award later was named after him. Martin Luther King Jr. was first to receive the award in 1964 for his outstanding work for justice and peace in race relations. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter received it for orchestrating the Middle East Peace Settlement that culminated in the Camp David accord between Israel’s Menachim Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat.

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