Pax Christi USA’s Teacher of Peace Award is given annually to someone who, from our perspective, gives outstanding witness to the theme of Pope Paul VI’s World Day of Peace Message “To reach peace, teach peace.” We choose recipients who demonstrate intentional and sustained efforts at building bridges across, and healing racial divisions, inside and outside the church in their peace and justice advocacy.
This year, we are both proud and deeply honored to be able to recognize Monsignor Ray East as Pax Christi USA’s 2005 Teacher of Peace.
There’s a saying from St. Francis of Assisi, which is “preach the gospel at all times, using words, if necessary” and it fits Fr. East. Even if he never used words, he would be receiving this award tonight because of his presence--the deep compassion and Christ’s healing touch that he brings to every encounter, with every person. Who he is -- speaks volumes of what it means to be a teacher of peace.
Yet if you have heard him use words to preach, if you have heard him sing with the Spirit that pours out of him—you know you are listening to a prophet—one whose bold and courageous voice speaks to the urgent needs of our times with passion and clarity. He is a powerful preacher and unafraid to speak truth to power. He represents the best of what our Church can be—a Church inserted in the life of the most vulnerable, and defending their cause. This is why we want to lift him up as a prophet of peace and non-violence.
Some Background
Msgr. East was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in San Diego. His grandparents were Baptist missionaries to South Africa. We honor his parents, the late Thomas and Gwendolyn East, who not only bought him into this world, but also his sisters Cecilia and Gertrude who drove in from California to be with us tonight as well as his nephews Trevor and Marcel.
Father East graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego, and his position with the National Association of Minority Contractors brought him to Washington, D.C., where he later experienced a call to the priesthood. He was ordained in 1981 by Cardinal Hickey.
Father East has served in six Washington parishes before being named director of the archdiocesan Office of Black Catholics and Vicar for Evangelization. It was in that capacity that Pax Christi USA began to work closely with Fr. East. He hosted the first exploratory meeting of the Peoples’ Peace Pastoral initiative, and the second, and then began an effort to bring in other groups of African American Catholic groups into this unique 20 group collaboration-including the National Black Catholic Congress and the National Association of Black Office Administrators, as well as others.
We honor and thank him for how he has helped shape this Peoples’ Peace Initiative, for his work in this and so many circles, to bring people together and weave what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the beloved community.”
More on his activities
Msgr. East has worked in the areas of liturgy, youth ministry and evangelization, including the Cursillo movement. Nationally, he is a highly sought-after and regular presenter for Catholic conferences and gatherings such as the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles, the regional African American Evangelization Conferences, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual Social Ministry gathering in D.C., and last week he was in Minnesota as part of a Music Ministry gathering.
Fr. East also is involved in ecumenical and interfaith circles, and is on the board of Sojouners as a way to support that part of the evangelical Christian movement that has taken stands against the war in Iraq and the cause of the Palestinian people.
His home diocese of Washington, D.C. is a church of immigrants and many Catholic immigrants come from African countries. Often they do not know where to go for help when they need it, and usually end up being directed to Msgr. East’s door. He has become their advocate. Their stories compelled him to gather African Catholics from across ethnic, national and language lines. He helped them form a committee, and their work led to the first ever diocesan-wide convocation in October 2004 in which 1,000 participated from 310 African countries. The significance of this work is not only that it provides a model for how other dioceses around the country could provide a welcoming place for gathering African immigrants, but the bridge-building involved is not unrelated to how Pax Christi was started as a movement for reconciliation in Europe following the Second World War. Many of the African Catholics that Mons. East has brought “to the table” have come from countries where they were on conflicting sides of civil wars. By working and praying together—with the Eucharist at the center—these communities are living out a process of reconciliation that also has import for their home countries. Another fruit of his bridge-building was the participation of these African Catholics in the Rwanda 10 year anniversary services last year, which was a powerful time of commemorating the past and reflecting on the current conflicts.
Msgr. East is a member of the Catholic Task Force on Africa, a network of religious order and other Catholic groups that meets monthly at US Catholic Conference to coordinate work on the Sudan, DR Congo and other conflicts in Africa. In fact, it was Msgr. East who invited and brought Pax Christi USA into that Task Force, for which we are grateful.
He traveled to Haiti at the end of last year and came back to lay the groundwork for sister parishes and a sister diocese relationship with the diocese of Jeremie.
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