Brueggemann, Young to be honored by General Synod

A graduate of Howard University and Hartford Theological Seminary, Young said he views his being honored by the denomination not so much as an opportunity to be celebrated, but a chance for him to celebrate and thank the church.

“The way I view it is whatever successes I have had I owe to to the church for having helped create me,” he said. “The church’s influence on me is so deep that all of my foreign policies while I was at the U.N. came more from our UCC missionaries than from the State Department. I was constantly fighting with the CIA and the National Security Council because of our differing views of the world. They were paying for intelligence and i was getting intelligence from friends who were living in those situations.”

Young was the first African American since reconstruction to serve in the House of Representatives from Georgia, he served two terms as mayor of Atlanta and, in 1977, was confirmed by President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

“When Carter decided to run for President and he asked me to help him formulate his positions on Africa, I sent him the statements of our church,” Young said. “And it was largely because of those positions which I think rang true in the early campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire – places where the UCC is strong – that he realized the importance of Africa and human rights.”Honoring someone like Young, Downs said, is a way of affirming someone who represents the very best of the Church’s long tradition of working for equality and the social good.