The Philadelphia Tribune has a fantastic profile of James Reeb our congregation’s namesake. James Reeb would be 93 on Jan 1st, 2020.
This married father of four was born in Wichita, Kansas, and ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1953 before moving to Pennsylvania, where he was appointed chaplain at Philadelphia General Hospital.
Philadelphia Tribune, 12/27/2019
But Reeb resigned four years later following his conversion to the Unitarian Church because of its emphasis on social action. As a Unitarian clergyman, he immediately began his activism in the Civil Rights Movement and called on his white parishioners to do the same.