Awards and Special Recognition

November 2019: This Fall we were honored and gratified to have several organizations recognize the Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, our founder, and The Guibord Center – Religion Inside Out for their positive impact on the local level and throughout the country. 

The National Council of Churches’ Award for Excellence in Interfaith Leadership

On October 14, 2019 Dr. Lo Sprague, President, and Mary Kirchen, Founding Board Member of The Guibord Center, flew to the National Council of Churches’ (NCC) Annual Christian Unity Gathering in Hampton, VA. There, the NCC acknowledged the breadth and significance of Gwynne’s visionary leadership by renaming a prestigious award in her honor. That evening, joined by NCC Assistant Secretary General Tony Kireolopoulos, Dr. Lo and Mary presented the first Gwynne Guibord Award for Excellence in Interreligious Leadership to the Rev. Dr. Alfred Moss, Jr. A great colleague and friend of Gwynne, Dr. Moss is an Episcopal priest, author, and emeritus professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ John Anson Ford Human Relations Award

Before dawn the following morning, Dr. Lo and Mary caught a flight home in order to accept the John Anson Ford Human Relations Award that recognized the Center’s Initiative on Transformative Engagement from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Commission on Human Relations. The award was one of the annual Human Relations Awards honoring “exemplary innovators and change-makers” for helping “[transform] prejudice into acceptance, inequity into justice and hostility into peace” in Los Angeles County.

Interreligious Council of Southern California Award for Interfaith Excellence

At the exact same time across town at the Bahá’í Faith Los Angeles Center, the Interreligious Council of Southern California honored The Guibord Center with the first Lucky Altman Lynch Award for Interfaith Excellence at its 50th Anniversary luncheon. Dr. Lisa Patriquin, accompanied by Guibord Center colleagues, accepted the award from Lucky, a highly respected longtime interfaith leader and advocate.

These acknowledgments affirm The Guibord Center’s value in filling the much-needed role of helping us overcome misconceptions and find the Holy in one another. As we head into a new year that may be even more divisive and contentious than 2019, we honor the responsibility that The Guibord Center carries to fulfill our mission of bringing people together in ways that transform hearts and minds.