However, Gomes says that he felt morally obligated to come forward because "firstly, religion was used in such a strident and perverse way to orchestrate an attack against homosexuality, and, secondly, there were so many students who were hurt by this, grievously wounded. I would hope that I would have the courage to speak out whatever happened."

Furthermore, Gomes insists that his coming out is completely consistent with everything that he has ever preached. "I've not taught strict adherance to the Bible. I'm not a fundamentalist or a literalist," he says. "My position last week was perfectly consistent with everything and anything that I've ever preached."

Preaching

Gomes's preaching has been an essential part of many ceremonies at Harvard. At the beginning of the academic year, Gomes delivered a prayer at the inauguration of President Neil L. Rudenstine.

"We hadn't had a public inauguration since 1909 so there was no one alive at Harvard who remembered the president being inaugurated publicly," Gomes says. "I think it came off with style. It wasn't pompous. But it had pomp."

However his prayer caused some controversy. Some students said that the prayer failed to include all the religions represented at the University.

In response to this criticism, which he calls uninformed and unjustified, Gomes says, "What I tried to do on that occasion was not simply pray in the language of my own tradition but to try to go beyond that tradition to the source of all traditions.

"I am a Christian because that is the way in which I see the world, but I do not believe that the God to whom I pray is only the God of Christians, because the God to whom I pray has to be the God of everything and everyone."

Gomes has been named one of America's seven greatest preachers by Time magazine. He spoke at the inaugurations of former President Ronald W. Reagan and President Bush. Describing the feeling he had before his sermon at the Bush inauguration, he says, "The work of this republic was happening peacefully, and I was a part of it for just a brief moment."

As well as being a part of national history, Gomes has been a dynamic and constant figure in the history of the University.

"He is the quintessential Harvard," says Epps. "He understands more of its history than perhaps anyone else."

Indeed, Peter Gomes has been, as well as made, the University's history. He has worked with and held leadership positions in more organizations than most other Harvard scholars. But his two loves at Harvard apart from the Harvard Foundation, are Phillips Brooks House and the Signet Society. At PBH, Gomes was chair of the faculty committee for 12 years.

"That committee saw the House just explode into tremendous volunteer activity, and now some 45 percent of undergraduates are involved in some sort of volunteer life and Phillips Brooks House was at the center of all that," he says. "I have a very warm spot in my heart for Phillips Brooks House."

And at the Signet, Harvard's oldest literary society, he was the president of the associates of the governing body for 10 years.

Speaking of all his involvements, Gomes says, "All of them gave me a window into the college."

Aside from his roles in student organizations, Gomes has been a professor and mentor to many. He currently teaches two courses at the Divinity School, and an Extension School course called, "Harvard, Institution and Idea."

Henry Louis Gates Jr., chair of the Afro-American Studies Department and DuBois professor of the humanities, regards Gomes as an important leader in the University and as his spiritual adviser.

"There's nothing I couldn't speak to him about," says Gates. "And yet, I feel speechless in his presence."