2017 Honorees

2017 Distinction in Congregational Ministry

Sharon Watkins, ’84 M.Div.

Sharon Watkins is General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. She is an inspirational preacher, teacher, and facilitator who devotes her considerable skills to the wholeness of the church, reconciling differences and helping the church retain its clarity of mission and identity in a variety of religious and ecumenical settings. Upon her election in 2005, she was the first female head of a mainline denomination. At the 2011 General Assembly, she was re-elected to a second six-year term, which will extend to July 2017. Watkins is the author of Whole: A Call for Unity in Our Fragmented World(Chalice Press, 2014).

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2017 Distinction in Theological Education

David Bartlett, ’67 B.D.

David L. Bartlett is the J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor Emeritus of Christian Communication at Yale Divinity School and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches, USA, Bartlett has served as the senior minister of congregations in Minnesota, Illinois, and California. From 1990 to 2005, Bartlett served at YDS on the faculty as well as in administrative roles including Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Dean of Academic Affairs. Bartlett has published numerous books and scholarly articles. His books include such notable works as Ministry in the New Testament (Fortress-Augsburg, 1993), Romans: Westminster Bible Companion (Westminster/John Knox, 1995), and Between the Bible and the Church (Abingdon, 1999). Bartlett delivered the Beecher Lectures, entitled “What’s Good About This News?” in 2001, published as What’s good about this news? : preaching from the Gospels and Galatians. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.

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2017 William Sloane Coffin ‘56 Award for Peace and Justice

James Antal, ‘78 M.Div.

Jim Antal ’78 M.Div. is Conference Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ. Since he was called in 2006, Antal’s leadership has been especially noteworthy in the areas of the environment and climate change. Most recently, he authored a UCC resolution to divest from fossil fuel companies, which was successfully passed at the UCC’s Synod in July 2013. Antal formerly served as senior minister of Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The holder of a D.Min. from Andover Newton, he is the winner of the Rabbi Murray Rothman Prize for his contributions to interfaith community relations and the author of Considering a New Call: Ethical and Spiritual Challenges for Clergy (Alban Institute, 2000).

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2017 Lux et Veritas

Rena Weller Karefa-Smart, ’45 B.D.

The first black woman to graduate from YDS, Rena Karefa-Smart has been a champion for global ecumenism over the course of her long and distinguished career. An attendee of the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches, she has served as an Episcopal priest and a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as Ecumenical Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, as Professor of Ethics at Howard University, and as an associate of the Center for Theology and Public Policy in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Karefa-Smart’s pioneering presence and subsequent success have paved the way for generations of black women at YDS.

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For Alumni