Nomination speech for George and Kathy Todd

John Park Lee Award Banquet
January 13, 2007
PHEWA Social Justice Biennial Conference
New Orleans, La.

By the Rev. Trey Hammond

Let me begin by saying that I'm glad that I am nominating the Todds for the John Park Lee award for lifetime achievement in ministry versus nominating George for a Tony Award as the best male vocal performer, based on the song we just heard him sing in the film presentation. The words to that song were in fact written by Kathy, taken from a memoir she wrote for the 50th anniversary of her graduating class from Wellesley College, and put to music by their son John. She noted her impressions of the pastor who supervised her intern year in a congregation in the East Harlem Protestant Parish while she was attending Union Theological Seminary. About George she wrote, "I thought he was wonderfully handsome and smart and I admired his piano playing and interest in art and the theater, as well as his convictions abut the church's mission with the poor." This seems to be a statement about her values as well as his.

In God's providence, these two remarkable people's lives crossed in New York City in the fall of 1952 and they began a partnership that has lasted fifty-three years. This partnership has been shaped by the great events in the church and the world of the second half of the 20th century. They in turn worked to see that that the arc of history in this time frame was toward justice. You would expect with Kathy having been baptized as an infant by Toyohiko Kagawa, the great prophetic presence among the poor in Japan; with George having been shaped by the crucible of World War II; and with their marriage blessed by the great theologian and social critic Reinhold Niebuhr that they would lead lives deeply immersed in the events of the day. And have they ever!

Allow me to give a cursory sketch of their journey. After they were married, they were an integral part of the Group Ministry of the East Harlem Protestant Parish, one of the truly innovative urban ministry experiments of the 20th century. In the Group Ministry the members pooled and shared their incomes and committed themselves to ecclesial, political and vocational disciplines together. The ministry was an effort to respond to the needs of a troubled section of the city by starting storefront churches and working with the community to effect decisions and public polices. They worked with their neighbors on issues of housing, public health, education, police corruption and drug abuse. They also explored new ecclesiastic forms and liturgical innovations.

From their experience in the parish, George was invited to teach in Chinese and other Asian seminaries about urban industrial mission and to organize effective, grassroots responses. They returned to the United States in 1963 where George took over the United Presbyterian Church Office for Urban and Industrial Mission. These were the exciting and turbulent sixties, when the Presbyterian Church was in the forefront of the great issues of the day — the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, cities in crisis and the emerging of community organizing. George was instrumental in initiating a number of important justice organizations including the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and the North American Congress on Latin America. George was good friends with Saul Alinsky and saw in community organizing an effective way for churches to move past charity to justice work. The Presbyterian Church became the largest Protestant funder of community organizing and that is still true today. In those years, Kathy's energies were focused on raising the also handsome and smart Todd sons — John, Peter, Adam and Sam.

They left New York City in 1972, when George was invited to head up the World Council of Church's Office for Urban and Industrial Mission. There they continued the work of resourcing and connecting emerging movements aimed at social and economic justice and democratic participation by people left out of power in developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Kathy worked with the Frontier Internship in Mission and the World Christian Student Federation, which provided life changing cross-cultural experiences for young people in their efforts of justice, ecology, human rights and women's equality. Their work in Geneva included more innovation in liturgy and music in this global faith collaborative environment. One interesting note: George commissioned a piece of music for a conference centered on the "Coming Kingdom of God" from the Taize community in France, which many churches often use during communion — "Jesus, Remember Me, When you Come into Your Kingdom."

After a decade with the World Council, they returned to the States, where George took the reins of a progressive, community-oriented foundation in Chicago. Kathy lent her skill to the Urban Academy, a training center for urban ministry. However, the pull to return to New York City was strong, especially with their sons and families nearby, so George accepted the responsibility as the Executive Presbyter of New York City Presbytery in 1986. This allowed him to pursue his commitment to the importance of vital urban congregations as places of personal and social transformation in their communities. Kathy worked for the National Council of Churches in leading exchanges of American church leaders with counterparts in Russia, Korea and the Philippines. She later worked on a program that helped undergird the church's understanding of the work and mission of the United Nations as a forum for global cooperation.

George retired from the presbytery work after a heart attack slowed him down in 1992. Kathy continued her work as the Director of the International Justice and Human Rights Office of the National Council of Churches until 2002. In their retirement, as you might surmise, they haven't exactly been loafing! George has worked a consultant for the PC(USA) around issues of affordable housing and community organizing. Kathy has continued her work with the World Christian Student Fellowship and been a leader in the social justice work of The Riverside church.

If I were going to write a book on their lives I would title it A View of the World from 21G, which is where they live in the Morningside Gardens, a cooperative on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Their balcony looks out upon one the world's great cities. From it, you can see the places that have shaped their lives — East Harlem, The Interchurch Center, Union Seminary and Riverside Church. In any given month, people come from all over the country and the world to visit the Todds and tell stories and conspire about the world as God intended. Their home is an oasis of hospitality and their care provides strength for others to carry on their work for justice.

Kathy mentioned in her memoir that her missionary parents imprinted in her a significant Presbyterian perspective — that every person is born with an identity, a destiny and a mission. George and Kathy have very intentionally spent a lifetime following that great calling. George and I share a love for Shakespeare, and in his play, Twelfth Night, Malvolio says something akin to Kathy's credo. "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." In spite of George's somewhat shameless rendition of how handsome and smart he is, I know that George and Kathy are humble in the assessment of their lives, all too aware of their flaws, and quite Reformed in their understanding of human nature. But for those of us who have been inspired and nurtured by them, we see in them greatness — the greatness that comes from giving one's life to God and others, the greatness of extravagant love that knows no boundaries, the greatness of a faith that God is still sovereign in a world when the evidence is sometimes hard to come by.

Let me close with an excerpt from their Christmas letter in 1990. I wish more Christmas letters probed this deep into the meaning of God's incarnation.

This is the joy and hope of Christmas, that God in person join humanity as the child of a poor couple. He shatters chaos. He shows in his humility, his healing, his neighborliness, his anger against oppression, his teaching, and his sacrificial living what the human possibilities are. Through this action of God in the life of his people, a way is open to us to join God in overcoming hopelessness and disorder, and in realizing a New World of peace with justice.

It is my great privilege to introduce Kathy and George Todd to receive the John Park Lee Award for lives committed to God's work of realizing a new world of peace with justice. May God bless you!

The Rev. Trey Hammond is the pastor of La Mesa Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico.