Putting ‘love thy neighbor’ into action

by Lisa Watts

Rev. Donald “Cash” Register ’59

He was in seventh grade and hoping to play football when a doctor found a murmur and slight leakage in Donald Register’s heart. His aunt and uncle, a Baptist couple who were raising him in Akron, took the boy to healing services and tent meetings.

“I remember praying, ‘Lord, just let me get well so I can play football and go to college. If you let me get well, I will serve you the rest of my life.’

“I meant that I would keep going to church all my life,” Register says, “but I guess the Lord had other ideas.”

Indeed. “Cash” Register ’59 became healthy enough to earn honors in track and football at Wooster while majoring in political science. He was also active in Westminster Presbyterian Church. The denomination suited his intellectual curiosity, he says, and he loved the hymns. A chance encounter in his senior year with Professor William Schreiber (German) convinced him to enroll in the seminary.

A life in urban ministry followed, one that has earned Register national and international recognition for his efforts in public housing advocacy and multicultural, interdenominational cooperation.

Register’s work began in St. Louis in 1963 as an urban intern, selected by the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church (USA) and assigned to Berea Presbyterian. He moved from assistant minister to the Presbyterian representative for a public housing authority in the city, where for the next seven years he led such efforts as organizing a food pantry that could accept federal food stamps, opening a thrift shop to help stretch families’ dollars, and organizing a rent strike.

“The sixties were an exciting time. There was an aura in the country that things could change. We believed we could develop Camelot,” he says. “St. Louis was just big enough, but small enough to get things done. Those days were filled with possibility, and a lot of change was enabled by the church.”

In 1971 Register was named associate for presbytery mission in the Presbytery of Chicago. For sixteen years he worked on urban strategy and program development, including such things as welcoming ten congregations of Korean immigrants into the church, starting a summer seminarian program, and continuing the public housing advocacy that he began in St. Louis.

In 1988 he moved to Sixth-Grace Presbyterian, where he served as pastor in the heart of Chicago until his retirement this past spring. While continuing his community activism, Register also kept the church financially healthy and strong in numbers during a period of declining membership elsewhere.

“When I retired, people didn’t talk about my sermons. They talked about the relationships I formed, serving all those funerals and baptisms and weddings,” he says. “And I left the church in solid financial shape.”

Always, community activism seemed “natural” to Register.

“You get thirsty, you see water, you drink it. I see people organizing, I want to help.

“The desire for justice and ‘love thy neighbor’ are the themes that run through all the ministry I’ve been involved with. And much of my work has been multicultural. Wherever there are people, there’s a need for God’s word.”

Register plans to volunteer as a substitute to give urban ministers a paid sabbatical for a few months, something he would have appreciated as a pastor. Besides, he’s having a hard time adjusting to retirement.

“It’s hard to sit now and just listen to a worship service. I ask myself, ‘What am I doing sitting here?’”