珀金斯博士. Evelyn Parker as 2021 Distinguished Alumna

达拉斯(SMU) – 的 珀金斯神学院 校友/ae Council has selected Evelyn L. Parker as the 2021 recipient of the Perkins Distinguished Alumnus/a Award. 的 Award recognizes Perkins graduates who have demonstrated effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support for the goals of Perkins and Southern Methodist University, 对社会的杰出服务, 以及模范人物.

Parker is both an alumna of Perkins as well as a member 荣誉退职的 珀金斯学院. 直到2021年5月退休, she was the Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical 的ology 在帕金斯.

“Dr. Parker was loved by her students and esteemed by her colleagues 在帕金斯,” said Craig C. Hill, Dean of 珀金斯神学院. “But her influence stretched well beyond our campus. She is globally recognized as an ecumenical leader and as one of the preeminent theological scholars of her generation in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.”

Parker also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs 在帕金斯. 作为一个J. 威廉·富布赖特学者, 帕克在开普敦度过了2019-2020年, 南非, focusing on the role of religious leaders in preventing and intervening in teen dating violence.

In a letter affirming Parker’s nomination for the award, Bishop Lawrence Reddick of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church praised Parker’s dedication to scholarship, 对珀金斯, 为了普世的事业, 还有她当地的教会. “Having joined the Perkins faculty in 1998, she has inspired countless others into scholarship,他说. He added that his daughter Iris visited the campus at Parker’s urging and later completed an M.Div. 和Th.M. 在帕金斯.

牧师. 布莱恩·莱特纳(M.Div.(2018)，圣. 泰勒的詹姆斯CME教堂, 德州, remembered his first impressions upon meeting Parker the first time (“Wow! 她真的很聪明.). “Dr. Parker’s love for Christian education resonates in the countless students she taught, mentored and challenged to develop a critical theological consciousness,他说.

Parker’s career began in 1983 as a research scientist in the department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics at the University of 德州 Medical Branch at Galveston. After completing a certificate course in Christian Education 在帕金斯, she came 对珀金斯 as a full-time student in the fall of 1989. She earned a master’s in Religious Education 在帕金斯 and a Ph.D. in the Religious 和的ological Studies Joint Program at Garrett-Evangelical School of 的ology and Northwestern University in 1996. She returned 对珀金斯 in 1998 to join the faculty.

A faithful lifelong member of Kirkwood Temple CME Church in Dallas, Parker has served as the church’s Christian Education Coordinator.  教堂的牧师，Dr. 杰里·L. 基督徒,老., who has known her for more than a half-century, wrote in his letter of nomination: “As her pastor for the past 15-plus years, I have observed her to be an outstanding woman of impeccable character who possesses phenomenal leadership skills and who exhibits genuine knowledge of the Word of God.”

Parker has represented the CME denomination at the World Council of Churches (WCC) and helped guide the planning for the Tenth Assembly of the WCC in Busan, South Korea in 2013 as a member of its Central Committee.

She is currently distinguished visiting professor for the 2021-22 academic year at Garrett-Evangelical 的ological Seminary.

帕克是 Between Sisters: Emancipatory Hope Out of Tragic Relationships, (Cascade Books, 2017)和 Trouble Don’t Last Always: Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents (朝圣者出版社，2003)，编辑 的 Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender (朝圣者出版社，2006). She has also published several chapters and journal articles on adolescent spirituality, including “Divine Fortitude: A Reflection on God’s goodness in black female child soldiers,” in Female Child Soldiering: Gender Violence and Feminist 的ologies 苏珊·威尔豪克主编., Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019.)

“Her scholarship is exceptionally distinguished because she has devoted herself deeply to listening to young people – primarily young women and girls – about their spirituality, 性, cultural identity and personal individuality,威廉·劳伦斯说, Professor Emeritus and former Perkins dean, in a letter affirming Parker’s nomination. “She has heard the silenced voices of Black, gay and trans youth.”

帕克将于明年秋天获此殊荣, along with the 2020 and 2022 Award recipient(s), at the Distinguished 校友 Awards Banquet in November 2022 on the campus of Southern Methodist University. 的 2020年获奖者 是牧师. 唐纳德W. 安德伍德和牧师. Dr. 西德尼·G. 大厅,三世. 

所有珀金斯神学院的名单 Distinguished Alumnus/a Award Recipients

More 信息 about Distinguished Alumnus/a Award Criteria (PDF)