> Watch the video of Bishop Gumbleton’s birthday gathering at this link.
This Wednesday, January 26th, will be Bishop Thomas Gumbleton’s 92nd birthday! And as we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we’re highlighting many of the key people who have been central to the identity, mission and accomplishments of Pax Christi USA. When the Pax Christi USA staff gathered together last week for our weekly program team meeting and realized Bishop Tom’s birthday was coming up this week, we all agreed how great it would be to gather some of the folks who know him best to share stories as a way of honoring all that he means to this movement and his leadership since our founding in 1972.
And so we invite the entire Pax Christi USA community to join us for a one-hour birthday gathering celebrating Tom this Wednesday, January 26th from 7:30-8:30pm ET over Zoom.
- WHAT: Online birthday gathering for Pax Christi USA Bishop-President-Emeritus, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
- WHEN: Wednesday, January 26th, 7:30-8:30pm ET
- WHERE: Over Zoom, click here to register!
We’ll be joined by Tom’s good friends and Pax Christi USA Ambassadors of Peace, Janice Vanderhaar, Bill and Mary Carry, and other special guests who will share their stories of Tom — both what he has meant to our movement and to them personally. We’ll show some photos of Tom from the Pax Christi USA archives, recall some of the key moments in his leadership with Pax Christi USA, and invite folks to share their best wishes for him in the chat and possibly on screen as time allows. We’ll also offer up a communal singing of Happy Birthday (it’ll be a joyful noise!).
Zoom is not Bishop Gumbleton’s favorite form of communication, so we want to make sure folks know that he most likely will not join us on the video call. But we will record and post it, sharing the link with him afterward; and when staff travel to Michigan for the Pax Christi Michigan conference in April, we’ll drop off a belated birthday gift for him from the Pax Christi USA community.
It is impossible to overstate how much Bishop Gumbleton has meant to our movement. We hope you’ll stop by during this hour-long gathering on Wednesday, even if for only a few minutes, and leave your birthday message for Tom in the chat, on our Facebook page during the livestream, or in the comments section on this post (below).
We were so privileged to have Bishop Gumbleton speak at Heidelberg in Tiffin,OH some time ago in their chapel. The place was full!
Happy, Happy Birthday, Bishop Gumbleton! Blessings of good health, peace, joy, and all that makes you feel your best. Thank you for your years of servant leadership to Pax Christi and to the Church. Thanks for being a model of what it is to be Christ in our time and place.
A number of years ago Pax Christi Maine had a wonderful retreat with Bishop Gumbleton. His warmth and authenticity were sure reflectors of Christ.
Just as Dorothy Day adamantly refused to pay Federal Taxes in resistance to the wars and injustice of the US, Tom Gumbleton has also refused to pay. In response to a question by Amy Goodman about what he does about taxes, Tom shocked her by saying “I do not pay”. Thank you Tom for your dedication to the Way of nonviolence. I am so blessed to have met you on the Way.
Many of Bishop Gumbleton’s homilies are printed and stored in my “conscience bag”–a bag I keep full of inspirational stories, quotes, articles and whatever from people famous and not famous who have touched my life. I am so grateful I discovered Bishop Tom so long ago. He is a true and brilliant gem in my spiritual life. God Bless you for many more years Bishop Tom! P.S.–I don’t like Zoom either!
Bishop Gumbleton was a true friend to us during challenging times at the Alderson Hospitality House in the early 1980s, a great support to the women in prison in Alderson, and always a beacon of peace for this nation and the world. Happy Birthday Tom! —Dick (Dieter) and Maggie (Louden)
Tom Gumbleton is pastor to the movement in the best sense of that role: empowering, modeling, teaching, counseling, comforting, encouraging, and available. Birthday blessings in abundance–a small measure of the many, many blessings you have given. .
Always late with checking emails and obviously missed the day of the birthday bash! I met bishop Gumbleton briefly in Jeremy Haiti about 30 years ago when I was studying with my wife for the diaconate. (Unfortunately, I was the only one to be ordained). the bishop and I flew together in the plane from POP to Jeremy and we had lunch at the “eveche” then I left with Father Doussou for Marfranc where I went to stay with a sharing parish. Short meeting but I was very impressed by him, by his modesty.