Long Search For Preacher May Be Over

The long search for a University preacher has apparently ended.

President Pusey will announce the appointment of a new Plummer Professor on Christian Morals at the May 11 meeting of the Board of Overseers, Administration sources reported yesterday. The new preacher has reportedly been offered the position and is interested in accepting it, provided the Corporation approves.

Although the name of the preacher could not be released, he is reported to be a young minister from outside the Harvard area.

The position of preacher to the University has been vacant since the departure of the Rev. George A. Buttrick in June, 1960. All efforts by President Pusey to fill the position have up till now been unsuccessful.

Four Rejections

It is reported that at least four or five ministers were offered the position and turned it down.

The Rev. Theodore P. Ferris '29, rector of Trinity Church in Boston, called the job of University preacher "one of the most challenging in the country." Ferris said he had been offered the position shortly after Buttrick's departure, but that he had refused it because he wanted to remain at his Trinity Church pulpit, where he has served for 20 years.

Ferris said the job of University preacher was particularly difficult because of the delicate position of the ministry in an academic and interdenominational community.

The Rev. R. Jerrold Gibson '51 has been acting minister of Memorial Church since 1960, and various visiting ministers have filled the pulpit from time to time.