Full Text of HR0171 95th General Assembly
HR0171 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, State Representative Monique D. Davis and the | 3 |
| Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate | 4 |
| Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., on 35 years of ministry at | 5 |
| Trinity United Church of Christ; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., was born in | 7 |
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he completed his elementary | 8 |
| education in that city and then went to the college where his | 9 |
| mother and father met, Virginia Union University, in Richmond, | 10 |
| Virginia; he was a third generation family member to be a | 11 |
| student at that college; his grandparents also finished | 12 |
| Virginia Union University in the early 1900s; and
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| WHEREAS, After six years in the military, Pastor Wright | 14 |
| transferred to Howard University where he completed his | 15 |
| undergraduate studies and received his first Master's Degree; | 16 |
| his second Master's Degree was from the University of Chicago | 17 |
| Divinity School; his Doctorate was received from the United | 18 |
| Theological Seminary under Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor; in | 19 |
| addition to Pastor Wright's four earned degrees, he has been | 20 |
| the recipient of three honorary doctor of Divinity Degrees, a | 21 |
| Doctor of Letters degree (from Colgate University), and a | 22 |
| Doctor of Laws Degree from Bethune-Cookman College; and
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| WHEREAS, Pastor Wright was called to serve the congregation | 2 |
| of Trinity United Church of Christ in March of 1972; Trinity's | 3 |
| membership was 87 adults in that year; the membership now | 4 |
| exceeds 8,000; over the last three decades Trinity Church has | 5 |
| constructed two new worship centers, with the present worship | 6 |
| center seating 2,700 and covering 150,000 square feet;
Trinity | 7 |
| Church has also constructed two Senior Citizen Housing | 8 |
| complexes which provide comfortable living quarters for 130 | 9 |
| families; Trinity Church has operated a federally funded child | 10 |
| care program for low-income and unemployed families for a | 11 |
| quarter of a century; and Trinity Church has run a federally | 12 |
| funded credit union for 25 years, with assets exceeding | 13 |
| $2,000,000; and
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| WHEREAS, Pastor Wright's ministry has extended far beyond | 15 |
| the 400 W. 95th Street address in Chicago, Illinois; Trinity | 16 |
| Church tithes its annual budget each year by giving one tenth | 17 |
| of its revenues to other churches, other agencies, and | 18 |
| denominational missions (as well as world missions); and
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| WHEREAS, In 2005, Trinity gave $100,000 to the UCC | 20 |
| denominational effort to help the evacuees displaced by | 21 |
| Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; in addition, Trinity Church gave | 22 |
| another $199,000 to Dillard University to help rebuild the | 23 |
| school, which is historically related to the United Church of | 24 |
| Christ and was virtually destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; and
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| WHEREAS, In addition to supporting mission work in Liberia, | 2 |
| Haiti, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, and South Africa, | 3 |
| Trinity makes a tremendous investment in higher education (in | 4 |
| general) and theological education (in particular) each year; | 5 |
| Trinity church has given over $300,000 to the United Negro | 6 |
| College Fund and $325,000 in scholarships to graduating high | 7 |
| school members who are college bound;
and
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| WHEREAS, Trinity Church has ordained 38 seminary | 9 |
| graduates; Trinity currently has 65 additional members in | 10 |
| accredited seminaries throughout the country; Trinity Church | 11 |
| makes an annual investment in excess of $300,000 to its members | 12 |
| who are students in accredited seminaries;
in addition to | 13 |
| supporting individual members who are in seminary, Trinity has | 14 |
| also "birthed" four new congregations in the United Church of | 15 |
| Christ, two in Atlanta, one in Gary, Indiana, and one in | 16 |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin;
and
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| WHEREAS, Four of the new pastors serving the new | 18 |
| congregations are sons and daughters of Pastor Wright; they | 19 |
| went to seminary with Trinity Church paying for over $21,000 | 20 |
| for each student's graduate school work, and they were all | 21 |
| ordained by Pastor Wright after completing seminary; in | 22 |
| addition to theological education, Trinity Church has been | 23 |
| supporting missions in Ghana, West Africa, in Bahia on Brazil, |
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| in Guguletu, and in Durban, South Africa for over a decade; and | 2 |
| Trinity Church opened a Computer School in Saltpond, Ghana in | 3 |
| the summer of 2000; and
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| WHEREAS, In August of 2003, Pastor Wright was enstooled by | 5 |
| the Ga-Dangme People of Ghana as Chief Afotey Oblum, II; | 6 |
| seventy-six members of the church accompanied Pastor Wright to | 7 |
| Ghana for the enstoolment; thirty African-Americans from | 8 |
| Pastor Wright's hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also | 9 |
| were in Ghana to witness his enstoolment;
and
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| WHEREAS, Pastor Wright was awarded the Alumnus of the Year | 11 |
| Award by the Howard University Board of Trustees in March of | 12 |
| 2004; the Howard University Board of Trustees recognized him as | 13 |
| their leading alumnus in the field of Religion and Theological | 14 |
| Education;
Pastor Wright's personal, pastoral, and ministry | 15 |
| philosophy have been shaped by his mother and father, the Rev. | 16 |
| Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Sr., and Dr. Mary Henderson Wright; and | 17 |
| WHEREAS, He gives thanks to God for having had parents who | 18 |
| showed him by their living what the gospel of Jesus Christ | 19 |
| really means; he now shares those lessons with his wife, Ramah | 20 |
| Reed Wright, his four daughters, his son, and his three | 21 |
| grandchildren; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE |
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| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 2 |
| congratulate Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., as he celebrates | 3 |
| his 35th year in the ministry at Trinity United Church of | 4 |
| Christ, serving the needs of his congregation and people around | 5 |
| the globe; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 7 |
| presented to Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., as a symbol of | 8 |
| our esteem.
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