All are welcome to nominate an individual or group of people for the Peaceseeker Award. Nomination form here.
The purpose of this award is to give well-deserved recognition to those who have made a serious commitment to working for justice and peace, particularly work that has influenced Presbyterians and the PC(USA). It is also intended to inspire others to get engaged in this work that is central to our calling. In recent years we have also included our non-Presbyterian partners working with us for a more just and peaceful world.
The award is annual, and the presentation of the award happens at the PPF Peace Breakfast during General Assembly in even years.
2020: Michelle Muñiz Vega
2019: Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church & First United Church of Oak Park
2018: Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and Rev. Dr. William Barber
2017: rev. abby mohaupt
2016: William “Bill” Coop
2015: Evelyn Chumbow and Jill Bolander-Cohen
2014: Jim Atwood
2013: Jewish Voice for Peace and the Israel/Palestine Mission Network
2012: Alice Winters
2011: Victor Makari
2010: Mel Duncan
2009: Bill Galvin
2008: Gary Cozette, Peggy Howland
2007: Anita David and Beth Pyles
2006: Anne Barstow, Milton Mejia and the Colombia Accompaniment Program
2005: Ann Barr Weems
2004: SOA Prisoners of Conscience: Marilyn Murphey White, Don Beisswenger, Charles A. Booker-Hirsch, Kent Kennon, Cliff Frasier, Ann Huntwork, Dwight Lawton, Phil Gates, John Ewers, Eric Johnson, & Ruthy Woodring. Since 2004, Julienne Oldfield, Chris Lieberman and LeAnne Clausen.
2003: Ross and Gloria Kinsler
2002: Lois Baker
2001: Walter Owensby
2000: Lois Kroehler
1999: Clinton Marsh
1998: Warren Wilson College
1997: Jan Hus Presbyterian Church & Jan Orr-Harter, NYC
1996: Rick Ufford-Chase & Borderlinks
1995: Ruth and Fred Maier
1994: Fred (“Mister”) Rogers
1993: Barbara Green
1992: Gary and Chess Campbell
1991: L. William Yolton
1990: The COs of 1940s: William Lovell, on behalf of all Conscientious Objectors from the 1940’s
1989: Ruth Rylander
1988: Mary Jane Patterson
1987: Maurice McCracken, Howard Maxwell
1986: Albert C. Winn
1985: Jim and Margaret Goff
1984: Southside Presbyterian Church (Tucson, AZ), John Fife, Pastor
1983: Jean Beaver, Herb Meza
1982: Eugene Carson Blake, Hogan and Genevieve Yancey
1981: Cameron P. Hall, Irvin (Mike) Elligan, Jean Edwards
1980: Ralph Mould, Olof Anderson, George Edwards, Henry Lofquist
1979: Winburn T. Thomas
1978: Edler Hawkins
1977: Margaret (Maggie) Kuhn
1976: John T. Conner
1975: John Oliver Nelson
1974: George R. Edwards
1973: St. Luke Church (Wayzata, MN), Steve Geckeler, Pastor
1972: Robert McAfee Brown
1971: John Coventry Smith
1970: William P. Thompson
In the mid-1960’s, Quakers, the National Council of Churches and others were maintaining a vigil in front of the White House to call for an end to the Vietnam War. This was prior to the big anti-war marches of that era. William P Thompson, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, found time in his busy schedule to join this vigil for about a week. The leadership of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship was impressed with this witness, and felt PPF should honor this in some way. So the Fellowship presented Bill Thompson with a “Peacemaker Award.”
Subsequently, PPF decided that it would be good to call attention to, and celebrate, other Presbyterians who had made a significant contribution to peace, and decided it would present such an award every year at General Assembly. The PPF leaders wisely realized that it is God who makes peace, and we are the ones who seek it. So the award was renamed the Peaceseeker Award.
In the 50 years or so that PPF has given the award, it has almost always gone to an individual in our church who has done something significant for peace. On a few occasions, it has gone to a congregation (i.e. Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson received the award for its sanctuary work). On a couple of occasions it has gone to a group of Presbyterians (i.e. the Presbyterian prisoners of conscience who went to jail for their witness to close the School of the Americas and the over 200 Presbyterians who were conscientious objectors during WWII). On one occasion it went to a college: Warren Wilson. It was the first Presbyterian college to have a full time faculty member as a peace studies mentor, and Warren Wilson made him available to help other colleges develop peace studies programs.