{"id":44339,"date":"2020-09-10T12:23:22","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T16:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?p=44339"},"modified":"2020-09-10T15:01:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T19:01:57","slug":"reverend-gilbert-h-caldwell-sth58","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/reverend-gilbert-h-caldwell-sth58\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverend Gilbert H. Caldwell (STH’58)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A virtual memorial service for the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is scheduled for 1pm Eastern time Saturday, September 12<\/strong>. The service will begin with about a 30-minute prelude of videos and music. Speakers will include his family, Bishop Woodie White and the Revs. William \u201cBobby\u201d McClain, Traci West and Don Messer. Many others will participate in the service in various ways. The service <\/span>can be watched here<\/a>.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

The following obituary was written by Heather Hahn and originally published on September 8, 2020 by United Methodist News. It can be accessed here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell called himself a \u201cfoot soldier\u201d in the U.S. civil rights movement. But many across his beloved United Methodist Church remember him as a general for justice.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Rev. Gilbert Caldwell, a civil rights activist and retired United Methodist pastor, speaks during a Black Lives Matter rally June 7 in Willingboro, N.J. He died Sept. 4, 2020. File photo by Aaron Wilson Watson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He died Sept. 4 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in hospice care. He was 86.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caldwell, who went by Gil, pushed to end discrimination throughout a ministry that spanned more than 60 years and churches in at least five conferences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He tirelessly and nonviolently advocated for both racial and LGBTQ equality \u2014 even when doing so put him at odds with prevailing state and church laws. As Caldwell saw it, he was following the call of Jesus to be inclusive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was gentle but strong, wise but humble,\u201d said retired Bishop Woodie White, who considered Caldwell a mentor, model and friend. \u201cHis commitment to racial justice and inclusiveness was unyielding, whether in the church or nation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Caldwell participated in many of the civil rights movement\u2019s landmark events \u2014 the March on Washington in 1963, the Mississippi Freedom Summer voter drives in 1964, the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 and the 1968 Poor People\u2019s Campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within his denomination, Caldwell \u2014 a co-founder of Black Methodists for Church Renewal \u2014 also took an activist role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGil\u2019s passion for equality, justice and inclusiveness inspired others to embrace his dream of beloved community,\u201d said the Rev. Don Messer, president emeritus of Iliff School of Theology in Denver and Caldwell\u2019s friend of more than 56 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1968, Caldwell was among the silent demonstrators standing at the doorway to the Uniting Conference that formed The United Methodist Church and officially ended the Central Jurisdiction that segregated Black Methodists<\/a>. Caldwell, a newly named district superintendent at the time, held a sign quoting the title of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s final book: \u201cWhere Do We Go from Here… Chaos or Community?\u201d It was just weeks<\/a> after King\u2019s assassination.<\/p>\n

At the 2000 General Conference, he was among more than 180 people arrested for engaging in civil disobedience<\/a> to protest the denomination\u2019s stance against same-gender marriage and \u201cself-avowed practicing\u201d gay clergy.<\/p>\n

Caldwell remained a passionate nonviolent activist until the end of his life. With help from a walker, he took the podium at a Black Lives Matter rally on June 7<\/a> in the New Jersey township of Willingboro.<\/p>\n

Bishop John Schol, who leads the Greater New Jersey Conference, introduced Caldwell at the rally. The two had been friends since they were both pastors in the neighboring Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cRev. Gil Caldwell brought the best of both prophetic and pastoral leadership to ministry,\u201d Schol told United Methodist News.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis love of God motivated him to care deeply for all people and he was a champion for the rights and inclusion of people of color, the LGBTQ community and women. He was gifted at loving, nudging and challenging people to do the just and right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell was born in 1933 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the son and grandson of itinerant Methodist pastors. Both he and his father were named for the 19th century white Methodist Bishop Gilbert Haven<\/a>, a noted abolitionist and advocate for women\u2019s suffrage.<\/p>\n

Caldwell grew up in segregated neighborhoods, segregated schools and a segregated church. Early on, Caldwell committed to change that.<\/p>\n

After earning an undergraduate degree from North Carolina A&T State University, a historically Black institution, he tried to break the cycle of inequality by applying in 1955 to Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cWhere do we go from here\u2026 Chaos or Community?\u201d appears on the sign held by the Rev. Gil Caldwell by the entrance to the 1968 Uniting Conference in Dallas. The gathering officially formed The United Methodist Church and ended the segregated Central Jurisdiction. Caldwell used the title of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s final book to remind delegates of the church’s ongoing call to confront racism. Photo courtesy of Archives and History.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the Methodist school \u2014 which would not admit Black students until seven years later \u2014 rejected his application because of his race. In 2017, Duke invited Caldwell to speak in its chapel<\/a> to help reckon with its past.<\/p>\n

Caldwell ultimately went to Boston University School of Theology, where he met many of the fellow clergy who helped shape his ministry \u2014 including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

Caldwell first met King in 1958<\/a>, when the civil rights giant returned to his alma mater to give a speech. King already was nationally famous for his leadership of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, and Caldwell was vice president of the theology school\u2019s student association.<\/p>\n

The two would later march together in 1965 to protest school segregation in Boston.<\/p>\n

Caldwell was also among the clergy and laity who answered King\u2019s call to come to Selma, Alabama, after police and others attacked more than 600 peaceful marchers on what became known as \u201cBloody Sunday.\u201d Caldwell joined <\/span>in the subsequent march to Montgomery<\/a> that helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Boston University School of Theology, Caldwell also met clergy who joined him in pushing to integrate the Methodist Church, including the future Bishop White.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two met when White was a first-year student and Caldwell had just graduated. They would work together to dissolve the Central Jurisdiction and champion equality as staff members of The United Methodist Church\u2019s then-new Commission on Religion and Race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caldwell later became a board member of PFLAG, a secular civil rights group whose name initially stood for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI considered Rev. Caldwell a real role model for how to do the work within faith communities, and within communities of color,\u201d <\/span>Jean Hodges, the group\u2019s former national board president, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAs a Methodist \u2014 and the mom of a gay man \u2014 I was moved and inspired by all that he did to bring more allyship and engagement within the UMC.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Bishop Karen Oliveto said in an email to the Mountain Sky Conference that Caldwell \u201cunderstood the intersectionality of oppressions long before others were talking about it, always standing with the marginalized to extend God\u2019s love and justice in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliveto, the denomination\u2019s first openly gay bishop, leads the conference where Caldwell served before retiring from pastoral ministry in 2001.<\/p>\n

In 2014, on the eve of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s birthday<\/a>, Caldwell officiated at a same-gender wedding even though doing so violated church law and could put his clergy credentials at risk.<\/p>\n

In recent years, he eagerly took on the task of telling younger generations about the civil rights movement and helping people understand the progress still needed. He was a prolific writer \u2014 authoring four books and publishing articles in multiple outlets, including the Boston Globe and UM News.<\/p>\n

\u201cRev. Caldwell often described himself as a journalist at heart. He valued the power of journalism to increase understanding, speak truth and bring healing,\u201d said Tim Tanton, who directs UM News. \u201cIn the last commentary<\/a> he wrote for us, he expressed concern about the assaults on journalism today and said those who love the Bible should do more to defend journalistic truth. UM News has lost a friend, and our hearts go out to the Caldwell family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell collaborated with Marilyn Bennett, a white lesbian and fellow activist, on the 2016 documentary \u201cFrom Selma to Stonewall: Are We There Yet?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever came into contact with him could take something away,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cHe gave a lot of people hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Rev. Gil Caldwell (right) stands with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. (left) and Virgil Wood on the roof of a Boston public school in 1965. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He also worked to pass the torch of social justice advocacy to new United Methodist leaders. One of those is the Rev. Nathan Adams, lead pastor of Park Hill United Methodist Church in Denver, where Caldwell served before his retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has forever left his mark on Park Hill UMC as he championed and led our congregation to be the inclusive, community-focused and social justice-minded church it is today,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

Caldwell had long worked to change the church from within, and he was greatly saddened at the prospect that the denomination\u2019s debate over LGBTQ inclusion would lead to a church split.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe experienced personally the hatred of racism, but never failed to express love,\u201d his friend Messer said. \u201cHis great disappointment was that The United Methodist Church failed to lead the world in dismantling racism and overcoming homophobia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Caldwell also never lost faith that the church could manifest God\u2019s love and found hope in this year\u2019s renewed movement toward racial justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Caldwell told UM News in June that although, like King, he would not get to the Promised Land with his Black family and allies, he believed if people \u201ckeep these moments alive, a semblance of MLK\u2019s \u2018Beloved Community\u2019 will be visible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Grace; sons Dale and Paul; and granddaughter Ashley.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following obituary was written by Heather Hahn and originally published on September 8, 2020 by United Methodist News. It can be accessed here. The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell called himself a \u201cfoot soldier\u201d in the U.S. civil rights movement. But many across his beloved United Methodist Church remember him as a general for justice.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[206,203],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44339"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44355,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44339\/revisions\/44355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}