25 Years for the Preacher Man

By 8:45 every Thursday morning, Rev. Peter J. Gomes has descended the suspended stairwell of his grand yellow house on Kirkland Street, strolled to the Yard and taken his usual seat in Appleton Chapel.

For 15 minutes each day, students, faculty and community members come together to hear a brief sermon and prayers before beginning the workday.

"It is meant to appeal to the higher nature of the community," Gomes explains. "It's a very centering way to begin the day."

Morning Prayer Service turns out to be the calmest part of a whirlwind schedule for the popular minister. He's meeting with chaplains from the University Ministry in the morning, counseling members of the Faculty in the afternoon, serving tea, writing commentaries and planning speaking tours well into the night.

"Religion is not regularly regarded as the centerpiece in my life, but it is in fact," he explains.

Intrigued by Gomes' identity as an African-American, Republican, gay minister, the national media--including the Village Voice, "60 Minutes" and Time--has featured him in countless profiles as an anomaly in the religious realm.

Yet despite his popular image, Gomes and many of those around him see him as a preacher first and foremost. And, after 25 years at the helm of the Memorial Church, the Plummer professor of Christian morals is uniquely attuned to the spiritual heartbeat of the campus he loves.

A Day in the Life

On Wednesday two weeks ago, Gomes spent the morning meeting with the Memorial Church organist and associate minister before heading to an appointment with the humanist chaplain.

Later that afternoon, he met with the widow of a Harvard professor to prepare for her husband's memorial service.

At 4 p.m., he joined Harvard Friends of Chabad to light a Hanukkah menorah on the steps of Widener Library before heading over to his weekly tea at Sparks House, the official residence of the Plummer professor.

Serving sandwiches, cookies and cake, Gomes welcomes all members of the College for casual conversation and company. With the holiday season in full effect, he has hosted students for Thanksgiving dinner, had luncheons for visiting preachers and held dinners for the church choir.

"December is heavy-duty entertainment season," he says.

Over tea in Sparks House, he proudly shows off a recent copy of the Delta Shuttle magazine--in which he was featured.

The minister is used to the limelight, and being recently named one of Talk magazine's "top talkers" was amusing--but the article didn't make it onto his antique-adorned mantle.

As a prominent minister and published author, Gomes accepts between 50 to 60 speaking engagements each year.

In His Chambers

Still, if Gomes spends much of his day performing official duties, he devotes a large part of his schedule to spiritual counseling and casual conversation.

"You can't be an absentee preacher," he says.

Assistant Dean of Freshmen Sarah B. Drummond, a graduate of the Divinity School, sees Gomes not only as a colleague, but also as adviser and friend.

"I've never made a really big decision since I've gotten here without conferring with Reverend Gomes," says Assistant Dean of Freshmen Sarah B. Drummond. "What he tells me to do, I do."

The subject can widely vary--from an individual's spiritual questioning, to Bible study, to "crises of faith," to questions like "How can I be a better person?" Gomes says.

His history with members of the College runs as long as his tenure with the church.

Gomes married Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Public Health James L. Nuzzo and his wife and baptized each of their children. Along the way he has encouraged them to look at matters of faith and confront religious questions.

With each major life event Gomes has encouraged the Nuzzo family to think about their religious values.

"He asks questions like 'What about the church in your lives?' 'How will you bring up your children?'" Nuzzo says.

For Brian D. Sadie, a museum attendant at the Fogg and Sackler museums, Gomes' lectures have led him to re-examine the Bible and its teachings.

"His sermons managed to hold me," Sadie says. "I had lost my childhood belief in the old texts."

Gomes serves as a religious role model to some at Harvard.

"He is an inspiration to me as a Christian because he is not at all apologetic in the way he professes Christian faith and preaches," says Kirkland House Senior Tutor Mark P. Risinger. "He also does not subscribe to a kind of religion where you're supposed to check your brain at the door."

Tending to the spiritual needs of the College is in his job title.

Caroline Plummer endowed the Plummer professorship in 1854 in order to support "a Professor of the Philosophy of the heart, and of the moral, physical and christian life in Harvard University."

But if "Christian life" and campus culture have changed quite a bit since Mrs. Plummer's days, Gomes says his services are more necessary than ever.

The Flock Grows Tense

Gomes has witnessed the changing face of Harvard from his time as a Divinity School student to his appointment at the Memorial Church in 1974.

In the post-Vietnam social protest era--as students have turned inward in these quieter times-- Gomes has observed the spiritual needs of the campus become increasingly intense.

"They haven't changed in any appreciable way, but they're more acute," he says. "Ironically as the world has gotten more stable, people have more chances to contemplate whether they are screwed up."

Gomes argues that the level of pressure today, both academic and social, is far more severe than a generation ago. As a result, students are seeking spiritual outlets now more than ever.

"Harvard's a much more uptight place in 1999 than in 1979," he explains. "I think your generation has a lot less fun than your parents did."

While today's students are more serious and spiritually inclined than the previous generation, they have had to make a number of personal and social sacrifices.

More members of the College are examining issues of faith and development--and yet they are victims of their own busy schedules.

"There is a sense that what we've watched in the last 20 years is a lot of introspection and very little time to examine what they've discovered," Gomes says.

A Man of All Seasons

Not every conversation with Gomes is about religion. People turn to him on everything from College history to personal advice to casual conversation.

Jonas Peter Akins '01 turned to Gomes for help on his history paper on the design and construction of the Memorial Church.

Gomes provided Akins with critical information and even took the time to suggest areas of further research.

"He's the keeper of the institutional memory," Akins says.

The Reverend has gained followers who praise his personal and professional advice.

Sterling P.A. Darling '01, an usher in the Memorial Church, noted Gomes' eagerness to advise and his open-mindedness about any number of issues.

"He's someone I find I can talk with on just about anything," Darling says. "He's very helpful in seeing a different point of view from your own or his."

And when members of the community approach Gomes about issues of faith, it's often not about his own.

Even though his title is Professor of Christian Morals, Gomes works with all of the religious communities at Harvard.

Unlike a college chaplain, who works within one faith, Gomes is responsible for the quality of religious life in general at Harvard.

"As University Minister, my denomination, Baptist, is almost irrelevant," he explains. "My concern is also for Hillel, Catholics and people who have no religious identity."

As a professor whose title is less constricted than most, Gomes has the opportunity to become involved in all aspects of College life.

"I have a symbolic role, and I appreciate that I'm one of the few generalists left in the University who cannot be confined or defined," he says.

Yet whether it's lighting the Hanukkah menorah or making sure that atheists receive guidance and support at the College, Gomes is a figure who conjures up images of a higher realm.

"He sort of fills that role as the figurative God guy on campus," Akins says.

Risinger gushes: "It's difficult not to have a conversation with him and not leave feeling better about yourself."