On Oct. 14, the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale awarded honorary degrees to four individuals. They are:
Eunice Groark, former lieutenant governor of the State of Connecticut, received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree for her commitment to Christian principles in public life -- particularly for her work throughout her career as an attorney and a public servant on the behalf of disenfranchised and marginalized individuals. She has been involved in such organizations as the Connecticut Prison Association, the Public Housing Corporation of Hartford, the Open Hearth Mission, Nature Conservancy and the Women's Campaign School at Yale. Ms. Groark is currently a visiting professor of government at Wesleyan University.
The Reverend H. Boone Porter received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He is among the chief architects of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which unites the Episcopalian community in a common form of liturgy and worship. Mr. Porter is a graduate of Yale College, the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is a teacher, editor and author of several books and numerous articles on liturgy.
The Reverend Barbara Brown Taylor, a 1976 graduate of the Divinity School, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. Recently named as one of the most effective preachers in the English-speaking world, she is a lecturer and teacher and is affiliated with the College of Preachers, based in Washington, D.C. She is author of numerous books, articles, and printed and recorded sermons. At the Convocation, Ms. Taylor also delivered the Beecher Lectures, on the theme "Famine in the Land: Homiletical Restraint and the Silence of God."
Bishop Herbert Thompson received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for his visionary church leadership and social justice ministries. Since 1988 Mr. Thompson has served as bishop of Southern Ohio. Under his leadership, the Cincinnati-based diocese has initiated a ministry for young people, established the Anglican Academy for Adult Education, and launched an aggressive program of congregational development and mission support. Previously, as rector of Grace Church in Jamaica, New York, he established initiatives to ease homelessness and hunger in the community, as well as a tutoring program. He also helped the parish acquire HUD funding to build housing for the elderly and handicapped.
"Looking at the diversity represented among these four outstanding individuals, one sees a mosaic of Episcopal life," says Berkeley Dean Philip Turner. "In conferring these degrees we celebrate the principle that all persons, lay and ordained, have a place in Christian ministry. Whether that ministry is political action, preaching and liturgy, or social concern, each was called and each responded."