Berkeley, CA - Matt Chew of St. Stephen's, Phoenix, and retired Treasurer of The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, received an honorary degree from Church Divinity School of the Pacific on Fri, May 23 at the Berkeley campus. Chew, a CPA, is a former member of the CDSP Board of Trustees, and a former trustee of the Church Pension Fund.

Matt Chew stands with The Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith, Bishop of Arizona, at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific commencement. Chew received an honorary degree in recognition of his years of dedicated church service.

The Rev. Dr. L. William Countryman, Episcopal priest, noted author and Sherman E. Johnson Professor Emeritus in Biblical Studies at CDSP was the commencement preacher. Known for his lively and challenging writing and preaching, Countryman's commencement homily was titled, "The Spirit Doesn't Always Play Nice."

With a graduating class of 41 seminary students, commencement was held on the CDSP campus in Berkeley.

Honorary degrees were bestowed upon three distinguished individuals:

• Matthew Kenyon Chew (St. Stephen's, Phoenix), CPA, former member of the CDSP Board of Trustees, and former trustee of the Church Pension Fund
• Georgene Treadwell Keeler, former chair of the CDSP Board of Trustees
• Sharon-Gay Smith, Consortial Registrar of the Graduate Theological Union

"We are delighted and honored to have Bill Countryman preach at our commencement this year," said Donn F. Morgan, President and Dean, CDSP, before the commencement. "For his boldness, wisdom, humor and insight, he is respected and beloved by students and faculty alike, as well as by countless others in the church."

L. William Countryman is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. Ordained a priest in the Diocese of Oklahoma in 1965, he served parishes and chaplaincies in Oklahoma, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. He is actively involved in ministry at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, in Berkeley.

A graduate of the University of Chicago (A.B., M.A., Ph.D.) and of The General Theological Seminary (S.T.B.), Countryman taught at the University of Chicago, Southwest Missouri State University, Brite Divinity School (Texas Christian University) before coming to CDSP and the Graduate Theological Union in 1983.

Countryman writes and speaks on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the Bible to gay and lesbian spirituality. He is perhaps best known for Dirt, Greed, and Sex, a study of sexual ethics in the New Testament and today (recently reissued in a revised edition), and for Living on the Border of the Holy, which explores the nature of priesthood, lay and ordained. He has recently published Interpreting the Truth: Changing the Paradigm of Biblical Studies, which argues for better conversation between church and academy.

Countryman has explored the issue of spirituality in works such as The Mystical Way in the Fourth Gospel, Forgiven and Forgiving, The Poetic Imagination: An Anglican Spiritual Tradition, and Love Human and Divine. He is co-author with the late M. R. Ritley of Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church.

Established in 1893, Church Divinity School of the Pacific's mission is to provide the highest quality Christian theological education in an environment of scholarship, reflection and worship, rooted in the Anglican tradition. CDSP is a founding member of the Graduate Theological Union, an ecumenical and interfaith consortium based in Berkeley, Calif. Additional information is available at www.cdsp.edu.