An Easter Christian: Rev. Gomes Laid to Rest Tuesday

Harvard and Plymouth came together Tuesday morning off Westerly Road. Hundreds of people gathered to remember the Rev. Dr. Peter John Gomes in his beloved First Baptist Church of Plymouth.

"Do you know why his funeral is in Plymouth and not Cambridge?" an elderly woman asked.

"He lived here."

"No, no. He lived in Cambridge, where I'm from."

During the ensuing service, every speaker mentioned the "son of Plymouth" who made it to the worldwide stage, and always came home.

"Hmm. I never knew that about Professor Gomes," the woman repeated.

That, according to everyone who spoke in public and among themselves at the reception following the service, would have pleased Peter. Personal enlightenment had occured.

"He told me he was not a Christmas Christian, but an Easter Christian," First Baptist pastor Jeffery Jones said. "What is an Easter Christian?"

He said he saw the meaning in the glint in the eye of Peter Gomes. But, Gomes, the best-selling Bible scholar, would turn to the Good Book. Jones said he found it in the first chapter of the first letter of the Apostle Peter. He also found it in a line from one of Peter's favorite hymns, the one chosen to lead the service: "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow."

"Over the last week, we all inevitably tell our Peter stories to one another and laugh," Jones said. "He had enormous generosity.

Gomes worked in the library of Pilgrim Hall Museum in the summers during his undergraduate years at Bates College. On graduation from Bates, he entered Harvard Divinity School. Beginning in 1974, he served at Harvard in two of the most prestigious theological posts anywhere - Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church.

He received 39 honorary degrees. Queen Elizabeth bestowed on him membership in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. He gave the prayers at the inaugurations of two U.S. presidents and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. He delivered the Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral.

He never forgot he grew up a poor black kid in Plymouth.

The Memorial Church paid for a reception held in the museum after the service. Photos of him as a young man hung before the caged library shelves.

Everyone told Peter stories. They told of his attire, particularly the cream colored linen suit, bow-tie and straw hat he wore on strolls downtown, where he would doff the hat and bow to allow ladies to pass. They told of his amazing ability to orate on any subject for any occasion spontaneously ("You have to provide specific vagaries," he said many times). They told of his droll humor. They told of his generosity.

He brought Cambridge and Plymouth together Tuesday. The President of Harvard, Drew Gilpin Faust, and the Senate President for the Commonwealth, Plymouth resident Terry Murray. Harvard professor Louis Gates and former Plymouth Chairman of Selectmen Ken Tavares. It always came back to Plymouth.

"We were the people who heard him preach his first sermon at age 12," Jones said. "Perhaps it's a provincial view, but appropriate at this time. We knew him differently."

"What do you say about someone who left Stephen Colbert speechless," Jones said of an appearance by Peter on the Colbert Report, widely distributed on the Internet. "What do you say about someone who has lunch with the Queen of England, comes home, and prefers a snack on his porch while he reads the newspaper. In his underwear."

Laughter mixed with tears frequently Tuesday.

Jones said when he planned a summer vacation, his most famous parishioner insisted on knowing first which Sundays he would have to preach to the congregation in which he grew up, in which his father served as deacon and his mother as organist.

"It left me in the wonderful place to be able to say,' Peter Gomes is my back-up preacher,' " Jones said.

Peter Gomes preached often at the First Baptist Church Plymouth, where he was ordained 43 years ago. He preached regularly at Harvard's Memorial Church as the Pusey Minister. He preached all over this country and Britain. He showed enormous enthusiasms for delivering the annual Union Service address in the First Parish Church in Town Square on rare, and always SRO, Thanksgiving mornings.

"He loved his town and was not shy of showing it," Tavares told the gathering. "Peter lived in two very different worlds, Cambridge and Plymouth, and flourished in both. Cambridge gave him the platform. We in Plymouth, gave him haven."

Peter Gomes resided in his parents' house off Russell Street most of his life. He had no Internet connection, would not answer his phone and rarely answered knock on his door. They all interrupted his work.

When he had completed a satisfactory amount of work for the day, he resumed local public life. He smoked cigars and drank Old Fashions on the veranda of the Old Colony Club. He inquired into the nature of research people in the History Room of the public library had engaged themselves. He strolled, briefly.

Linda Tassinari told the gathering how she tried to get him to exercise more. He generally declined her offers. They met in the first grade in 1948.

"We lived on the same street," she said. "We went to the same schools and attended the same church. Each of us had no siblings, so we became like brother and sister."

A few years ago, Peter moved from the little yellow cottage off Russell Street to a larger, white house with a big porch facing Plymouth Harbor at the end of Winter Street. His old friend Tavares resided next to it.

"It's very humbling for Linda and I to speak here today," Tavares said."Peter, in the most genuine manner, loved people. He never presented himself as not having fault. Because he knew his own shortcomings, he was able to lift us up out of our own."

One Thanksgiving afternoon, the new editor of the local newspaper checked in on the activities atop Cole's Hill, the Annual Day of Mourning protest of Thanksgiving. Peter Gomes, Pilgrim scholar, leaned on his cane and listened. The editor passed him and shook his head.

"Mathewson," Peter said, tilting his head to look down through his glasses. "There's room at the table for everyone and it's now your duty to ensure that."

"This man of only 68 years touched so many people in so many ways," Tavares struggled through tears to tell people in the room, watching on screens in the church hall, watching on tape delay. No one at the reception remembered him breaking down in public.

One day, on his porch, he told his old friend Linda Mae he wanted her to speak at his funeral. She said she would, as long as he would speak at hers, too. Some months later, he brought up the subject again.

"Evidently, he wanted to tell me exactly what to say," Tassinari told the gathering. "He was nice... Second, he will always be grateful for this church."

Plymouth's PACTV will play a recording of the service several times. Harvard University has posted, free of charge to users, more than 90 of Rev. Gomes' Memorial Church sermons at iUniversity in the iTunes store.