[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 20, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 WELCOMING REVEREND HINES TO THE SENATE

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Madam President, it is my great privilege to welcome 
to the Senate today the guest chaplain. He spoke in his prayer I think 
about wisdom, justice, and compassion.
  As he was delivering his prayer, my colleague from Alabama and 
perhaps 20 others of our colleagues were meeting below here listening 
to a very similar message from our colleague, Sam Nunn from Georgia. 
One of the observations that Sam Nunn made to all of us was that we 
spend too much time in this place accumulating political capital and 
not enough time spending it on others.
  If I may, in recognizing the 50 years of service to humanity, and his 
church in the 25 years he just celebrated at Third Street Church of God 
in northwest Washington, may I say to my colleagues and to my friend, 
Dr. Hines, and to our friend, the Senate Chaplain, that we are honored 
by Sam Hines' presence today. We are honored by the message of our 
colleague, Sam Nunn, to many of us at the gathering at this same time.
  It is a great honor to be with people like Dr. Hines in a place and 
in a position such as we have been so honored to serve.
  Madam President, it is my great privilege to welcome to the Senate 
today's guest chaplain.
  Rev. Dr. Sam Hines recently celebrated his 25th anniversary as pastor 
of the Third Street Church of God in northwest Washington--and those 25 
years have been indeed years of achievement for this minister of the 
gospel. My friend Congressman Tony Hall calls him ``an outstanding 
leader and a vital force in the Washington community,'' and I could not 
agree more.
  Members of his church community consider themselves ambassadors for 
Christ in the Nation's Capital. And this phrase summarizes very well 
not just Reverend Hines' pastorate at the Third Street Church, but his 
whole life as a man of the cloth.
  For almost half a century, Reverend Hines has been an ambassador for 
the gospel in some of the situations where it is most urgently needed. 
In ravaged neighborhoods of Washington, DC, where drugs and gang 
warfare threaten the lives of the young--and where ethnic hatreds 
poison the lives of all who are near--Sam Hines has brought the sought-
after words of peace.
  He has challenged people of all races to find their unity in Jesus 
Christ--the Great Reconciler whose mission of forgiveness extends to 
all people, everywhere.
  I am very glad that Reverend Hines could be with us today, here in 
the Senate. We are trying to reform the one-seventh of the economy 
known as the health care system and never were the words more truly 
spoken: ``Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build 
it.''--Ps. 127:1.
  I thank Reverend Hines for his words of uplift and encouragement, and 
I join my colleagues in praying that over the next couple of months we 
all keep our hearts and minds open. We can never predict where the 
voice will come from, the voice that Lincoln called ``the better angels 
of our nature.''
  I express my gratitude to my colleague from Alabama for yielding 
time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Alabama is 
recognized.

                          ____________________