Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. dies; was civil rights, peace activist

Published: 2006-04-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., a leading religious figure in the U.S. movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, died of congestive heart failure April 12 at his home in Strafford, Vt. He was 81. A Presbyterian minister and chaplain at Yale University for 18 years, he was an outspoken advocate and activist in the civil rights movement in the early 1960s but gained international prominence as a leader of the anti-war movement in the late 1960s and early '70s. As senior minister of the prestigious Riverside Church in Manhattan from 1976 to 1987, he continued his activism on behalf of the poor and his work in racial and ecumenical relations and on peace and nuclear disarmament, often criticizing U.S. uses of political and military power. "To my generation, Bill Coffin was a hero," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "Bill never lost an opportunity to witness for peace," he added.

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