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Gomes Marks 40 Years of Ministry

June 3, 2008

Widely beloved Harvard figure Peter J. Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian morals and Pusey minister in the Memorial Church, celebrated 40 years as an ordained minister on Sunday; the Boston Globe covered the ceremony at First Baptist Church of Plymouth, where he was ordained.

Speaking at the service, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick ’78, J.D. ’82, praised Gomes as an “extraordinary, scholarly, self-assured ‘Afro-Saxon’ utterly determined to define himself on his own terms.”

Gomes, a Bates College alumnus, has preached in Memorial Church since 1970. His musings on changing marriage patterns, among Harvardians and others, figured in “The Future of Marriage,” from the November-December 2004 issue of Harvard Magazine; read the story here. Another story from our archives, “Gay Like Me” (January-February 1998) discusses Gomes’s views on homosexuality.