Sunday Program

Title:  “Active Hope”

Speaker:  William Cork

My favorite Unitarian writer is Theodore Parker—he was the subject of my master’s thesis. He was a person of hope, famously speaking of his confidence that the arc of the moral universe “bends toward justice.” He worked with passion to make his hope a reality. His thoughts and actions can serve as inspiration for the work of people of faith in today’s struggles for justice and peace.  William Cork

Rev. William Cork is a minister of the Mennonite Church USA and a member of Houston Mennonite Church. He is a Board-Certified clinical chaplain working in the Emergency Department of Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. He was an Army chaplain for 20 years, served a deployment to Kuwait as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, with his final two years at the Pentagon. He has also been a congregational pastor and a campus minister. He taught world religions for several years at Alvin Community College and has been active in many interfaith organizations. His ministry focus for the past dozen years has been in suicide prevention. He is a member of the executive board of the Texas Suicide Prevention Collaborative and active in the Houston Area Suicide Prevention Coalition. He has an MA in church history and a Master of Divinity, both from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. His MA thesis was on Theodore Parker, and the relationship between his transcendentalist philosophy and his passionate activism as an abolitionist. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree in ecumenism and has completed 3/4 of a Master of Public Health degree in Health Promotion and Health Education. He and his wife, Joy, will have been married for 44 years on May 23 of this year; they have two adult children, one 3-year-old grandson, and six cats.

Please stay for coffee and conversation after the service.