Engaged for almost half a century in a wide range of progressive, even radical, causes, Rev. Howard Moody is about to take a break.

Leaving the Village for quieter and warmer climes in Santa Barbara, Cal., he plans to write the story of his 35-year, often tempestuous and always exhilarating ministry at Judson Memorial Church.

Just a few weeks ago, near his Mercer St. apartment, as he sipped coffee and a snowstorm raged outside, he reminisced about his evolution from a Southern Baptist to what he now calls a "Christian agnostic."

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