wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Johnnie Monroe receives PHEWA's John Park Lee Award

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This story and photo available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09115<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09115

Johnnie Monroe receives PHEWA's John Park Lee Award

Urban social justice advocate to be honored at Big Tent

>by Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE ― The Rev. Johnnie Monroe, a Presbyterian pastor
who has tirelessly advocated for social justice in urban
communities during his 42-years of  ministry, has been
named winner of the Presbyterian Health, Education and
Welfare Association's [www.pcusa.org/phewa] (PHEWA) 2009
John Park Lee Award.

Monroe, pastor emeritus of Grace Memorial Presbyterian
Church in Pittsburgh, will be honored at a PHEWA- hosted
dinner June 12 during the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s
Big Tent [www.pcusa.org/bigtent] event.

"Johnnie was selected because of his life-long commitment
to social justice advocacy work for the least of these,"
said PHWWA Executive Director the Rev. Nancy Troy, "and for
his service to the church, and to the broader communities
that he has served so faithfully."

Monroe has preached to, baptized, and nurtured thousands of
people in congregations as well as being a "public pastor"
to many outside the congregations he has served. Grace
Memorial is frequently called "the mother congregation"
among Black Presbyterian churches in Pittsburgh.

Monroe called the announcement of the award "a pleasant
surprise. We don't do this ministry to be noticed but
anytime someone honors the work you've done it's a good
feeling."

In addition to his ministry Monroe's civic leadership has
been broadly recognized and affirmed.  He has served as
president of the Chester (PA) branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
president of the Chester Ministerial Alliance and president
of the board of directors of Delaware County Opportunities
Industrialization Center (OIC) of America, a job training
and placement resource for the unemployed and
under-employed.

In honor of his diligent work in establishing a fire
station for his Chester community, the station was named
the Rev. Dr. Johnnie Monroe Fire Station in 1995.

He has provided leadership to a variety of church-based
community programs for people of all ages and was a
founding member Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Metro
Urban Institute Advisory Board. He also serves as an
adjunct faculty member of the seminary.

"I still see our urban communities as a beacon of hope for
society," Monroe said, "and an opportunity for evangelistic
ministry in the name of Jesus Christ through social justice
advocacy."

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