The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church celebrates with great pride the recognition of two of its own, the Reverend Drs. Ray and Gloria White-Hammond have been awarded the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Oikos Institute for Social Impact. The award was formally presented during the Fishing Differently® Impact Awards Gala on Thursday, September 4, 2025, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Hammonds, co-pastors of Bethel AME Church in Boston, Massachusetts, have spent decades embodying the AME Church’s mandate to serve God by serving people. Their joint ministry reflects an uncommon blend of faith, medicine, activism, and education, leaving an indelible mark on communities in Boston and beyond.
Doctor Gloria White-Hammond, a board-certified pediatrician and faith leader, has dedicated her career to advocating for women and children. Her groundbreaking work includes co-founding My Sister’s Keeper, an international humanitarian organization supporting the health and rights of women and girls in Sudan and South Sudan. Domestically, she became a vital voice in Boston’s public health outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that underserved communities had access to life-saving vaccinations.
In addition to her pastoral role, Dr. White-Hammond serves on the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, where she mentors a new generation of theologians and clergy committed to integrating faith with justice. Her prophetic leadership continues to inspire both within the AME Church and in the global human rights community.
Doctor Ray Hammond, founding pastor of Bethel AME Church, is also a Harvard-trained emergency physician. His vocational path reflects the AME Church’s deep historical tradition of bridging the Gospel with civic engagement. From his earliest days in ministry, Dr. Hammond has been an advocate for youth development, gun violence prevention, and urban renewal. His service as Chair of the Boston Foundation positioned him as a leading public voice on ethical leadership and social responsibility.
Together, the Hammonds have transformed Bethel AME Church into a model congregation that embodies community-centered ministry. Their work demonstrates how local churches can function as hubs of racial equity, health outreach, and intergenerational empowerment.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred during the Oikos Institute’s Fishing Differently® Conference, September 3–5, 2025. The three-day gathering brought together faith leaders, social entrepreneurs, and impact investors to reimagine the role of congregations in addressing pressing social and economic challenges.
Founded in 2020 by the Reverends Drs. Reginald Blount and Sidney Williams, the Oikos Institute equips churches to become economic and social anchors within their communities. Through the Fishing Differently® methodology, congregations are challenged to move from charity to capital, from maintenance to mission, and from surviving to thriving.
This year’s Conference featured keynote addresses from numerous leading preachers and scholars. They included the Reverend Dr. Cynthia Hale, the Reverend Dr. J. Wendell Mapson, the Reverend Dr. Leslie Callahan, and the Reverend Dr. Lester McCorn. Workshops and design labs explored adaptive reuse of sacred spaces, capital readiness, food justice, affordable housing, and economic mobility.
The Impact Awards Gala, where the Hammonds and others were honored, was a Conference-culminating celebration. It recognized other transformative leaders, such as the Reverend Dr. Cynthia Hale and the Reverend Drs. Dwight and Kit Evans-Ford, and the Rev. Darrell Goodwin, and the Reverend Dr. Stephen Handy. Musical artist Grammy Award Winner Avery*Sunshine provided a stirring performance for the evening.
The Hammonds’ recognition by Oikos holds special significance for the AME Church. Since its founding in 1787, the denomination has stood at the intersection of faith and freedom, committed to dismantling injustice and uplifting Black communities. In many ways, the Hammonds represent a contemporary embodiment of Richard Allen’s vision: pastors who stand boldly in the pulpit while working tirelessly in the streets, clinics, schools, and boardrooms.
In Boston, Bethel AME Church has extended the AME Church’s historic mission of liberation from hosting health fairs and youth programs to shaping citywide conversations on equity and public safety. The Hammonds model what it means for the Black church to be a moral and social compass. Their Lifetime Achievement Award is not only a recognition of an individual accomplishment but also a testament to the AME Church’s ongoing witness in the communities in which we serve.
Oikos Institute’s Fishing Differently® Conference highlights churches, institutions, and nonprofits that situate and execute their missions as a witness that they are not relics of the past but vital engines of hope, justice, and transformation. “The Hammonds remind us that ministry is never confined to Sunday morning,” said one Conference organizer. “It is lived out daily in hospitals, neighborhoods, classrooms, and city halls. Their legacy proves that faith, when coupled with courage, can indeed heal communities.”
For the AME Church, this recognition is both a celebration and a charge. As new generations of clergy and lay leaders rise, the Hammonds’ example calls the church to continue to “F.I.S.H. Differently®.” Last year, one of the Oikos Institute’s Impact Awards recognized Bishop Harry L. Seawright, the presiding prelate of the 13th Episcopal District of the AME Church. It celebrated both his visionary and social impact successes in his pastoral and Episcopal works.
