HOWARD SPEAKS AT BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE CONVOCATION
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September 24, 2002, Bloomfield, NJ -- Dr. Moses William Howard, Jr., an
internationally recognized religious leader and political activist, delivered
the Convocation address as Bloomfield College celebrated the beginning of the
academic year on Thursday, October 3 at 2:15 p.m. in the Robert V. Van Fossan
Theatre in the College’s Westminster Arts Center.
Dr. Howard has served as pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark since October 2000. Before that, he served as President of New York Theological Seminary for eight years. |
Since the early 1970’s, Howard was a leading participant in the movement against apartheid in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela made his first trip to the U.S., Dr. Howard chaired the interfaith worship service at the Riverside Church where Mr. Mandela was welcomed to New York. During the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, Dr. Howard conducted Christmas worship for Americans held captive in the U.S. embassy.
The following year, Dr. Howard led a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, where he met with King Hussein of Jordan and Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres of Israel.
In 1984, he chaired a delegation which, with Rev. Jesse Jackson, obtained the release of a U.S. Navy pilot imprisoned in Syria after having been shot down during a bombing mission over Lebanon.
Dr. Howard has devoted numberless hours to church and community organizations. He has served as a board member of The Children’s Defense Fund, People for the American Way, and The National Urban League.
A respected expert on international politics and religion, Dr. Howard has appeared on national television programs including The MacNeil Lehrer Report, David Frost, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and ABC’s Nightline with Ted Koppel.
Dr. Howard hails from Americus, Georgia. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He has earned many honors for his leadership, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the New York City NAACP and citations from the New Jersey State Assembly and the Mayor of Philadelphia. He holds several honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Bloomfield College in 2001.
Founded in 1868 as a Presbyterian seminary, Bloomfield College is an independent, four-year, co-educational institution offering 1,900 full- and part-time students programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional studies. The College has earned national recognition for its innovative, high quality academic and co-curricular programs; its leadership role in multicultural education; its commitment to serve students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds; and its mission to prepare students to attain academic, personal and professional excellence in a multicultural and global society.
