WINSTON SALEM, NC, May 29, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present The Rt. Rev. Graham Henry Rights with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Bishop Rights celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Bishop Rights was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the son of Douglas LeTell Rights and Cecil Burton Rights. He joined older brothers George and Burton and older sister Eleanor. Throughout his childhood and youth, his father served as pastor of Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem. The Moravian Church notably has its origins in ancient Bohemia and Moravia, a region of Europe that is now the Czech Republic.
He was educated in the local schools and, in 1952, entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1956. At UNC he served as Chair of the Elections Board and President of the YMCA. In the spring of 1955, he joined with other campus leaders in a successful effort to open the undergraduate level of the university to Negro students. Noting from his college experience that important decisions are being made during this time and appreciating the benefit that participation in the YMCA and Presbyterian student group had been to him, he made the decision to study to become a college chaplain. Since the Moravian Church had only two colleges and both had chaplains, he chose to attend an ecumenical seminary and entered Yale Divinity School, where the two staff members at the UNC YMCA, Claude Shotts and John Riebel, and the Presbyterian chaplain to students, The Rev. Harry Smith, had studied.
While at Yale Divinity School, Bishop Rights served for two years as a student pastor at Elmwood Community Church (United Church of Christ) in West Hartford, Connecticut, under the Rev. Sterling White. His major focus was on the youth of the congregation, but Pastor White saw to it that he was closely involved with other aspects of parish life, participating in church's Sunday services and occasionally preaching and visiting parishioners in their homes. These opportunities inspired him to realize his calling to pastoral ministry, as opposed to college chaplaincy, and led, after his graduation in 1959 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree, to his spending a year at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Following ordination in 1960 at his home church, Trinity Moravian in Winston-Salem, he began five years of service in Managua, Nicaragua, as pastor of the Moravian Church and, for the first two and a half years, also as pastor of the Union Church (a Protestant church with services in English).
He then studied for a year at New College, the theological school of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and returned home to serve congregations in Mayodan and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, followed by service as Executive Director of the Board of World Mission, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In 1983, he was elected to serve as President of the executive board of the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America, with office in Winston-Salem. During four of his twelve years in that position, he also served as President of the Executive Board of the world-wide Moravian Church. In 1995, he was elected and consecrated a bishop of the Moravian Church. In 2000, he retired from his pastorate at that time, First Moravian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, after 39 years of service in ordained ministry. He continues, however, in his service as a bishop since, in the Moravian Church, bishops never retire.
His service in the Moravian Church included membership on various boards of the Southern Province and as a Moravian representative in their dialogue with The Episcopal Church that led to establishment of full communion between the two denominations. He also participated with the Moravian Church in Great Britain's dialogue with the Church of Ireland. With the world-wide Moravian Church, Bishop Rights distinguished himself serving as a board member of the Moravian Church Foundation from 1988 until 2003, during which time he chaired the organization's annual meetings for ten years and was active on the executive committee for five years. This board administrates businesses owned by the world-wide church in various areas and gives support to theological schools and special projects. He was also a Moravian representative at the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Canberra, Australia, in1991 and has served as a member of the General Board of the National Council of Churches of Christ.
An avid community advocate, Bishop Rights has garnered a laudable reputation for his services as a member of the board of directors of several organizations, including CareNet of the Triad at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, the Cherokee-Moravian Historical Association, Crisis Control Ministry of Forsyth County, Salemtowne Retirement Community, and the Pastoral Care Foundation at the North Carolina Baptist Hospital. Moreover, he has served as Elder of the Society of the Mayflower Descendants in the State of North Carolina since 2000.
He currently (2020) serves part-time as a Pastor of Visitation for Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, concentrating on home-bound members. He also sings in Home Church's Men's Chorus, plays in their band, sings in the Moramus Chorale of the Moravian Music Foundation, and continues service on the Salemtowne and Crisis Control Boards.
Bishop Rights received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Wofford College in 1989, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Moravian Theological Seminary in 1997, and an Alumni Award for Service in Ordained Ministry from Yale Divinity School in 1998. A celebrated Marquis listee, he has been cited in over 40 editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Religion and Who's Who in the South and Southwest.
In 1963, Bishop Rights was married to Sybil Critz Strupe, who provided strong support for him through their 52 years of marriage until her death in 2015. He is the proud father of their children, Susie Rights Gatland (husband, Ray) and John Graham Rights (wife, Brandi), and of grandchildren, Ian and Anissa Gatland and Matthew and Emma Rights.
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