IARF Congress 2018

At the 35th IARF World Congress in Washington, DC, Rev. Dr. Richard Boeke receives the Distinguished Leadership Award in recognition of a lifetime of work for international liberal religion, interfaith understanding and peace. The presentation recalls his involvement in IARF from the early 1960s, including friendships with Toribio Quimada and Shinichiro Imaoka, participation in the 1964 Hague Congress, his role in broadening IARF’s interreligious identity and his leadership in the IARF Peace Commission.

In his remarks, Boeke reflects on formative encounters spanning his ministry, US Air Force chaplaincy and peace activism. He recalls the nuclear age, the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., and the importance of relationships across religious boundaries. The recording is both an award presentation and a compact first-person testimony to several decades of IARF history.