An important leader of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church has been recognized by the National Council of Churches (NCC) for outstanding service and leadership. This recognition took place in October at the NCC’s annual Christian Unity Gathering, in Hampton, Virginia.  

The Gwynne Guibord Award for Excellence in Interreligious Leadership was given to the Rev. Dr. Alfred Moss, Jr., an Episcopal priest and an emeritus professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, College Park.  He earned his B.A., with honors, at Lake Forest College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; his M.Div. at The Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and, his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.  He has also served the church in several capacities, including as associate minister, Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, Illinois; Episcopal chaplain, University of Chicago; associate minister, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia, where he lives. Currently, he is affiliated with The Falls Church Episcopal Church, Falls Church, Virginia. 

Author of numerous articles on the history of African Americans and race relations in the English-speaking world, he is also the author of The American Negro Academy: Voice of the Talented Tenth; co-editor with Eric Anderson of The Facts of Reconstruction; co-author with Eric Anderson of Dangerous Donations: Northern Philanthropy and Southern Black Education; and co-author with John Hope Franklin of three editions of From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. He has been a trustee of the Washington D.C. Theological Consortium; is a former vice-president of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church; is a member of the editorial board of Washington History, journal of the Historical Society of Washington D.C.; is a member of the Scholars Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; and is a senior fellow of the Ford Foundation.  As priest, scholar, and teacher he represents the Episcopal Church on numerous ecumenical and interfaith bodies, including the African American Episcopal Historical Collection, a joint venture of HSEC and Virginia Theological Seminary.

The Rev. Dr. Moss has served the National Council of Churches with distinction as a member of the Convening Table on Interreligious Relations and Collaboration, and chair of its small group on theology, as well as a participant in the National Jewish-Christian Dialogue and National Muslim-Christian Dialogue.