The Reverend Professor Peter Gomes is an American Baptist minister who has served in The Memorial Church, Harvard University, since 1970. Preaching nationally and internationally, Rev. Gomes offered prayers at the inaugurals of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Rev. Gomes graduated from Harvard Divinity School and has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 1974.

Rev. Gomes' best-selling books include: The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, (1996), Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (1998), The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need (2002), Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (2003), The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News? (2007). His most recent book, also in 2007, is A Word to the Wise, and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard; he has published ten other volumes of sermons as well as numerous articles and papers.

Rev. Gomes has a bachelors degree from Bates College and thirty-seven honorary degrees. He is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, The University of Cambridge, England, where The Gomes Lectureship is established in his name. Rev. Gomes was named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life and in 2007 he was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to membership in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

Rev. Gomes serves as trustee of The National Cathedral School, Washington, DC.; Harvard University trustee of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; trustee of The Roxbury Latin School and trustee of Bates College. He is a member of The Massachusetts Historical Society; a sometime Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, London, England; former acting director of The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University; past president of The Signet Society, Harvard's oldest literary society; and past president and trustee of The Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Rev. Gomes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1942.

NOTE: Bio is as it appeared in the Forum program from January 29, 2009.