Ray Gibbons, 105; minister helped Protestant churches address major social injustices

The Rev. Ray Gibbons, a minister who helped Protestant churches in the United States address major social and political issues as director of the Council for Christian Social Action from 1944 to 1968, died of natural causes March 18 at Pilgrim Place retirement home in Claremont, his son David said last week. He was 105.

The council was an agency of the Congregational Christian Churches of America and, starting in 1957, the United Church of Christ.

Soon after taking over as director, Gibbons called on the denomination's 4,000 clergymen to address "racial relations, labor problems, peace treaties, management [and] economic questions," according to a 1944 Time magazine article.

Gibbons worked out of the council's New York offices but traveled extensively to lead congregations as they put their Christian faith into practice.

During World War II, he visited internment camps where Japanese Americans were detained, offering encouragement and advocating their release. After the war, he helped churches as they worked to re-integrate those citizens back into their communities.

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FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article misspelled Ray Gibbons' last name in the headline as Gibbon.

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He spoke out in Appalachia and other depressed areas while helping to develop better housing for low- and middle-income families.

In the 1960s, he joined civil rights activists in marches in Selma, Ala., and helped monitor media coverage in Mississippi when activists successfully challenged the Federal Communications Commission's renewal of a Jackson, Miss., TV station's license, saying management did not give fair coverage to civil rights issues.

Gibbons often encountered resistance.

"A lot of people argued at that time that the church shouldn't get involved in social action," his son said. "He faced tremendous opposition, and it took courage to do what he was doing."

Born Feb. 10, 1903, in Cleveland, Gibbons attended Oberlin College in Ohio. After graduation he earned his divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York and did graduate work at Columbia University.

Starting in the 1920s, he became a pastor at churches in Massachusetts and Maine before leading the council. He also served on the board of the National Council of Churches.

Gibbons and his wife, Marjorie, retired to Maine in 1969, then moved to Claremont in 1977. She died in 1999.

In addition to his son David of Oakhurst, N.J., Gibbons is survived by another son, Paul of Nelson, N.H.; a daughter, Jane of Sweden, Maine; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. All of his children are ordained ministers.

claire.noland@latimes.com