Each year, Pacific School of Religion honors student excellence in building community, preaching, and ethics. These awards were presented at the Graduates’ Chapel on May 7, 2024.
Koinonia Community Building Awards
Maurice “Mo” King
The Koinonia Community Building Award is presented each spring to honor those graduating students who have strengthened PSR; for serving the school through active participation in campus life; and for demonstrating academic excellence, thereby contributing to and enhancing the scholarly reputation of PSR.
Marcella Althaus-Reid Award in Queering Religion and Theology
Jessie “Jay” Ratcliff
The Marcella Althaus-Reid Award is presented by PSR’s Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion (CLGS) to the graduating student for the best student essay on “queering religion and theology.” The award honors the pioneering theological vision of Marcella Althaus-Reid, who was at the forefront of a brand new and controversial field in the academic study of theology. She passed away on February 22, 2009.
Michael M. Mendiola Prize in Ethics
D. Lopez
The Michael M. Mendiola Prize in Ethics is awarded to the graduating student who has submitted an outstanding essay or thesis on the questions of theodicy and human suffering or other important topics in contemporary ethics. The award is named for a much-beloved former PSR ethics professor who served on the faculty from 1992-2009. Dr. Mendiola not only helped to birth the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion but also made major contributions to the study of biomedical issues. This award was established at the time of his untimely death by faculty colleagues and friends in honor of his many contributions to the life of this institution.
Paul Wesley Yinger Preaching Awards
Rev. Sarah TevisTownes
The Paul Wesley Yinger Preaching Award is presented each spring to the graduating Master of Divinity students judged to be the most outstanding preachers with demonstrated dramatic skills. The recipients are selected each year by a committee chaired by the professor of homiletics, other faculty who teach courses in homiletics at PSR, and the dean of the faculty. The endowed award was established by Dr. Yinger’s family and frien,s; a noted United Church of Christ preacher who served as a trustee of Pacific School of Religion from 1962 to 1985.