wfn.org | Two UCC pastors receive Yale Divinity School awards

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Two UCC pastors receive Yale Divinity School awards

> Written by Jeff Woodard
> June 23, 2010

It's probably a blessing that her car was parked when the Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper 
learned that she is this year's recipient of Yale Divinity School's William 
Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice.

"When Dean Harold Attridge called me to tell me of the award on Wednesday of Holy Week, I was 
in a drugstore parking lot," says Kemper, recently retired after 18 years as Executive 
Director of the UCC's Kentucky Council of Churches. "When he told me, it took my breath away. 
I sat down in the car for a good long time in wonder. And then I cried."

The award is given in honor of William Sloane Coffin, former chaplain to Yale 
University, former pastor of New York City's Riverside Church
(UCC/American Baptist) and a prominent 20th century religious leader. The award 
recognizes courageous devotion to the dignity and worth of all persons, and is 
presented for notable contributions to the work of peace, nuclear disarmament 
and reconciliation.

"This feels like the highest accolade that a minister might ever receive," says Kemper, 
who also holds ministerial standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has served at 
least seven faith communities in 40-plus years of ministry. "It amazed me that my colleagues 
who nominated me for this award believed that my ministry reflected a witness similar in even 
minimal ways to Bill's ministry as a Christian, an American patriot, and as a pastor."

Kemper (1967, B.D.) has advocated for economic justice, comprehensive health 
care, child-abuse prevention, disability programs, gun control, Medicaid, 
low-income housing, tax reform and immigration reform. In addition, she has 
worked to end the death penalty, predatory lending, racial profiling and the 
genocide in Darfur.

As a young woman from the mid-South who had never considered that Christians might 
be witnesses in the public square to the way of Christ, Kemper cites as a personal 
turning point a 1980 lecture on preaching given by Coffin at YDS. "At the time, 
my marriage was collapsing, and I was feeling very vulnerable. I didn't see how a 
soon-to-be divorced woman minister with two little girls would be able to continue 
in ministry.

"But with scripture always rolling off his tongue, at one point he quoted 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.' Then he said, 
'That would be good to believe, wouldn't it?' "

Kemper says her platform with KCC enabled her to speak for a Christian perspective on the 
public good that is rarely heard in cultural contexts where fundamentalism predominates. 
"The model that Bill Coffin gave many of us is more desperately needed now in 
America than at any time in our history," she  says.

Hailing Kemper as "the face and voice of progressive Christianity in Kentucky," the Rev. Stephen 
Gray praised her lofty networking abilities. "Under Nancy Jo, the KCC took a leadership role in 
addressing legislative issues in Kentucky state government," says Gray, Kentucky-Indiana Conference 
Minister. "One might expect in a state as conservative as Kentucky that lobbying of the legislature by 
the KCC would not be supported. To the contrary, the KCC was and is a presence in  Frankfurt."

Also honored this year by Yale Divinity School is the Rev. Lillian Daniel, 
senior minister of First Congregational UCC in Glen Ellyn, Ill., who is 
receiving the Distinction in Congregational Ministry citation. The award is 
given to a lay or ordained individual who has shown exceptional pastoral 
competence in the work of developing the ministry and mission of local 
congregations.

"It was through YDS that I discovered the UCC," says Daniel (1993, M.Div.), who 
previously served as senior minister of the Church of the Redeemer, in New Haven, Conn. "I had 
been raised Anglican, and the Episcopal church had turned me down in the ordination process, so I 
came to YDS thinking I was heading into social justice or academic work. I filled out law school 
applications at one point, but ended up deciding to stay at divinity school ? even though I had no 
idea where it would take me since the door to ordination had been closed to me."

While at YDS, Daniel says she had discovered a church she had never heard of, "a 
historic denomination with so many strong congregations in the New Haven area. When I 
found the UCC, or when it, through God's grace, found me, suddenly all the doors were 
open."

Along with the Rev. Martin B. Copenhaver, Daniel is co-author of "This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers" 
(2009). She has also written "Tell It like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony" (2004). A frequent contributor to "The Christian Century" magazine, Daniel writes for "Leadership" magazine and preaching periodicals such as the "Journal for Preachers" and the "Biblical Preaching Journal."

"I was deeply touched to receive this award and pretty surprised to get it because there are 
so many folks from YDS whose congregational ministries I admire from afar," says Daniel. 
"I know I was not the best student the school ever saw, that's for sure. While my divinity 
school friends may have spent a lot more time in the library than I did, the efforts of my teachers 
were not lost on me."

Daniel advises those in discernment over divinity school to trust that God is leading 
them to the right place. "The scary student loans, the debt after graduation and all 
the hard work will be worth it. Let the Holy Spirit guide you to where you ought to 
be."

Both awards will be presented during a banquet at the annual YDS Convocation & 
Reunions Oct. 11-14. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first degrees 
awarded to women at Yale Divinity School.