Peter J. Gomes, the minister of Memorial Church, received the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Medal at a ceremony in New York City yesterday evening for elevating the place of spirituality in the modern world.

“He is first of all a brilliant creature who has given traditional religious preaching a higher prominence in our secular world,” said John F. Sears ’65, former executive director of the institute.

The medal is one of several awards given by the institute to commemorate the “Four Freedoms” that Franklin Roosevelt described in a 1941 speech as foundational to democracy.

In his writing and preaching, Gomes has encouraged people to think deeply about traditional religious and moral ideas, ”reminding us that having as much of the goods of the world as we want is not as important as contributing to society and doing something greater than our individual selves,” Sears said.

A professor at the Divinity School, Gomes—who was not available for comment yesterday because he was in New York for the ceremony—has worked in Memorial Church since 1970 and has written several books on applying biblical teachings to our daily lives.

“He has made religion a part of a Harvard education,” said Justin P. Schoolmaster, a senior administrator at Memorial Church. “It doesn’t have to be a Christian education—it can be any kind of education relating to religion. But he has kept that part of the general academic discussion.”

Gomes’ support of gay rights also played a role in his selection, Sears added. After a now-defunct conservative Harvard student publication, the Peninsula, ran a 56-page issue in 1991 on the evils of homosexuality, Gomes announced that he was gay.

“Reverend Gomes came out and identified himself for the first time as being gay, and that took a lot of courage,” Sears said. “And we think it made a big difference in giving authority to the acceptance of gay people in the Christian community.”

Former recipients of the Freedom of Worship Medal include Coretta Scott King and Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust scholar and Nobel laureate.

Last night’s ceremony, held at the Chelsea Piers complex on the West Side of Manhattan, also honored Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Richard G. Lugar, (R-Ind.), TV journalist Bill Moyers, author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, and former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft.