Enoch Kelly Haney

Enoch Kelly Haney, 62, won the honor of sculpting a statue for the top of the newly built Oklahoma City state capitol building dome.

A full-blood Seminole, Haney created "The Guardian," a three-ton and nearly 22-feet-tall bronze statue depicting a Native American warrior gripping a spear.He says traditionally, when a Native American was threatened by overwhelming odds, he would drive his lance into the soil to show he was standing his ground.

Though the state awarded him $50,000 for his sculpting work, Haney returned the money, explaining that in Native American tradition, when someone is honored, the honoree gives back to others in exchange.He asked that the state instead apply the award money toward the completion of the $21 million dome.

Having served in the state legislature for 22 years, Haney is the son and grandson of United Methodist pastors, and credits the support of the United Methodist Church for his success.Before his career in public service, he was a United Methodist pastor and director of youth ministries for the missionary conference.

A member of Wesley Church, Shawnee, Okla., Haney says his next goal is to help raise money to complete the $150 million Native American Cultural and Educational Authority in Oklahoma City, which will promote the history and culture of Native Americans.

**********************************

He Works Toward Racial Justice

Pastor of Memorial Church in White Plains, N.Y., the Rev. Joseph Agne, 58, has advocated for racial justice for more than 25 years.

"I believe it's my responsibility to use my gifts and energies to work against all things that break the family of God apart," says Agne, who recently led his church in developing a more inclusive mission statement.

"I believe God's vision for us is to have no one excluded from the table," he adds.

One of the students who organized with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, Agne is president of the Religious Leaders of White Plains and co-president of the national board of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. He serves on a community-based coalition to battle hate group activity and an ecumenical, faith-based support organization of prisoners of conscience or U.S. political prisoners.He also works for an organization that researches antidemocratic, oppressive trends; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Non-Violence, which promotes nonviolence as a strategy for social change.

Last May Agne was honored with the 2002 Myron S. Isaacs Community Service Award by the Westchester chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union for his work promoting civil rights.