of Fort Myers, Florida

           Where Diversity is Treasured

Wayne became the founding minister of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation in February 2001. He is a Unitarian Universalist minister, having served UU congregations in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Michigan and Florida. He was also a United Methodist minister for several years, and was reared in the Pentecostal Holiness Church, where he first began preaching.

Before entering pastoral ministry he served in a wide variety of nonprofit positions including television, radio, advertising, and direct mail. He ghosted more than a dozen books for others, and authored three (I Once Spoke in Tongues; Oral: an unauthorized biography; and compiled What’s a nice church like you doing in a place like this?). Most recently, he moderated a panel for WGCU-TV with Ray Suarez of the Lehrer News House, which also included Chaplain James Yee, former Guantanamo chaplain.

 His education includes a Bachelor of Theology, Southwestern College of Christian Ministries; a Bachelor of Arts (journalism), Oklahoma City University; and a Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry, Southern Methodist University. He currently is an adjunct instructor of civic engagement at Florida Gulf Coast University. He will return to Oxford University (Christ Church) for continuing education, Summer 2007. He has traveled widely, including Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. He wrote his doctoral project in Israel and the Occupied Territories. His two daughters and son are married and have among them his six grandchildren.

 He has been actively involved in many civil liberties and social justice issues including:

 n            “Christian Peace Witness for Iraq,” in Washington, D.C., for which he was arrested, handcuffed, fingerprinted and taken to the D.C. Anacostia jail.

 n            Created and directed Symposium ’71, a protest against the Vietnam War, featuring William Sloane Coffin, Jr., the Rev. Joseph Lowery, et al.

 n            The lead plaintiff in a civil liberties suit decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 to remove the cross from the city seal of Edmond, Oklahoma. 

n            Named “Visionary of Lee County” (Gulfshore Magazine); “Citizen of the Year” (Social Workers of SW Florida); “Courageous Plaintiff” award (Oklahoma Chapter) American Civil Liberties Union; appeared on national NBC Today Show twice as part of a successful effort to remove a fundamentalist bible class from the high schools of Lee County; and he is a frequent “Guest Columnist” for the News-Press in Ft. Myers.

 “At All Faiths, we believe that ultimately faith is not so much the creeds we say, as it is the lives we live, which is why we seek constantly to be involved in issues that matter.”