A two-day celebration honoring the ministry of the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., attracted 400 alumni and friends of Yale Divinity School and helped launch a $1 million William Sloane Coffin, Jr., scholarship fund for students at the school.

University chaplain from 1958 to 1975, Prof. Coffin rose to national prominence as an anti-war activist, civil rights leader, and opponent of nuclear arms.

The April 28-29 event included a panel discussion on the “Future of Ministry in a Prophetic Setting.” Panelists included Yale-Berkeley Divinity School alumni the Rt. Rev. John B. Chane, Bishop of Washington, and the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, holder of the Harry R. Butman Chair of Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College (Ga.).

Though wheelchair bound, the 80-year-old minister was animated as he addressed the gathering, attacking the religious right and calling for a Christian faith that looked to succor the poor and oppressed.

“I believe Christianity is a worldview that undergirds all progressive thought and action,” Prof. Coffin said. “The Christian church doesn’t have a social ethic as much as it is a social ethic, called to respond to biblical mandates like truth telling, confronting injustice and pursuing peace.”

Progressive Christians must “get rid of this sense of liberal arrogance," Bishop Chane said. "It is that arrogance which has permitted those on the extreme right to take over a huge vacuum and to start pulling the strings on the pocket which makes us very nervous, and really calls for the Church to be responsive at a time when it still believes it can sit back and not challenge people whose theology is veneer thin.”

More news of the week:

· New York Bishop Clarifies Status of Retired Priests

· Presiding Bishop: ACC Presentation will Invite Dialogue

· Delegation named for June 21 ACC Meeting

· Bishop Hargrove of Western Louisiana Dead at 67

· St. David's, Pepperell, Mass., Suffers Fire

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