The Rev. Peter Gomes to deliver Muskie Environmental Lecture at Bates

Noted Harvard preacher and author Peter J. Gomes ’65, will discuss Stewards of Creation: Theological Reflections on Ecological Obligations Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Bates College Chapel. The public is invited to attend the annual Muskie Environmental Lecture, followed by a reception and book signing in Chase Hall Lounge, free of charge.

The Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, Gomes will explore the relationship between human beings and the environment, a connection he considers to be “fundamentally religious. For the time being, this world is the only one we have. How we manage our stewardship of the earth is as much an expression of faith as it is of policy or service. Stewardship, not merely survival, is truly an ecumenical adventure.”

Author of best-sellers such as Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (Morrow, 1998) and The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (Morrow, 1996), Gomes has reinterpreted the Bible as a dynamic, transforming and inclusionary work for our times.

Since being named by Time Magazine in 1979 as one of our country’s seven most influential preachers, he has remained an insistent voice of conscience, blending a conservative view of religion and morality with contemporary concern for the physical and spiritual welfare of all Americans.

Humor and wit — his sermons can quote from T.S. Eliot and Mae West, as well as the Bible — inform the serious moral content of his words and have made him a sought-after speaker. Gomes has officated at two presidential inaugurations.

A native of Boston, Gomes graduated from Bates and Harvard Divinity School. After teaching and serving as director of freshman studies at Tuskegee Institute, he arrived at Harvard in 1970 as assistant minister in the Memorial Church. Gomes has been minister in the Memorial Church since 1974, when he was appointed Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. He is a leading authority on the Pilgrims of Plymouth.

The annual Muskie Environmental Lecture honors the environmental legacy of Edmund S. Muskie, who graduated from Bates in 1936. The Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act bear the former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator’s imprint.