PORTLAND, OR (June 26, 2009) \u2013 Judith McCullough grew up in a small southern Michigan town, where she knew only one African American person and two Japanese Americans before she went off to college.
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\n\u201cHowever I was blessed with parents who always talked about \u2018making the circle bigger\u2019 and including everyone,\u201d recalls the retired Evangelical Covenant Church pastor.<\/p>\n
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During a special presentation today during the denomination\u2019s 124th Annual Meeting, President Gary Walter presented the small-town girl (top photo) with the Irving C. Lambert Award for her years of excellence in urban ministry. The Commission on Urban Ministries administers the award through the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism (CGE).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not anything I expected,\u201d she said in response, \u201cbut I am humbled. Thank you for this honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
She thanked her husband, Tom (lower photo), and five children for being so supportive. She also thanked those with whom she has worked over the years. \u201cI have been blessed with great souls to journey with me in ministry,\u201d she said. She also praised the support the denomination gives to its clergy. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing and wonderful,\u201d she said. \u201cI have grown as a follower of Jesus Christ in this church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling her childhood years, she noted a sandbox her parents placed in their yard, which was open to all of the children in the neighborhood. She likens the love of God to that sandbox \u2013 a place where everyone is welcome. \u201cEveryone plays with the toys,\u201d she noted, \u201cand no one throws sand. Jesus calls us to be inclusive, to share the toys and never throw sand.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After graduating college, McCullough served as director of Christian education at a Presbyterian congregation in Pittsburgh. \u201cI began early on working with African American pastors on the North Side to develop tutoring and summer Vacation Bible School programs,\u201d she says. \u201cI was involved in the Civil Rights movement through marches, enlisting support for fair housing covenants, and taking youth groups on urban work camps in several of our major cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCullough adds, \u201cEverytime I went into Detroit or Pittsburgh or New York, I just knew that I felt alive and fulfilled. For all of my years in ministry, I was taking groups of kids and adults into the city to learn about the ways that God was working there in those neighborhoods, even though I couldn’t figure out how I could live there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She served for years as an urban retreat director at Grace House for youth in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. She continued her commitment to the urban community when she became senior pastor of the Covenant Congregational Church in the inner city of Boston.<\/p>\n
During her eleven years at Covenant Congregational Church, she served as one of the leaders in Boston as part of the 10-Point Coalition, alongside the renowned Rev. Eugene Rivers. This coalition dealt with the incessant violence in the community, working toward racial reconciliation in a city that was racially divided.<\/p>\n
She has also served her community through working for various candidates running for offices in the African American community.<\/p>\n
McCullough\u2019s experience of working cross-culturally has not been limited to the United States, however. Beginning in 1987, she traveled to El Salvador at least 10 times to work at a health clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking there and getting to know another culture richly blessed my life and my ministry,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
McCullough retired in 2005, but has continued to minister in local churches. She served as an interim pastor for 16 months at Covenant Congregational Church in North Easton, Massachusetts; preached seven weeks at Salem Covenant Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, during the pastor\u2019s sabbatical, and is now developing a ministry for single adults at Cape Cod Covenant Church in Brewster, Massachusetts, where she is now a member.<\/p>\n
McCullough says she was surprised when CGE interim Executive Minister John Notehelfer called to tell her that the commission wanted to honor her. \u201cIt was a very humbling experience since I don’t feel like I have done anything so special. But I know my mother would say, \u2018Just say thank you.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n