Servant Leadership Award Honors Charlie Cook
Dec 12, 2008
Presentation of the Faculty Gift establishing an award in Servant Leadership to be given annually and presented at the September Marticulation
For twenty-four years Charlie Cook has offered his gifts as a teacher, pastor and mentor to our students and to this institution.
He has done so as a member of the faculty, as a member of this community and as a priest in the Episcopal Church. These are more than roles: they are all expressions of his faith and his being.
In his life and ministry among us, Charlie has offered a vision of what it means to be a leader through his generosity of spirit and his hospitality of mind, making room for others to learn, to grow and to offer the gifts that God has given them for the common good and the building up of the Body of Christ.
He has done so with humility, wisdom and courage, with self-giving and with a spirit of collaboration and mutuality. As a colleague, Charlie has called us to see more clearly and commit more deeply.
As the Professor of Pastoral Theology, Charlie has not only exercised his leadership in the classroom but also in countless meetings and not a few conversations on sidewalks, in the back of the chapel and in the comfortable chairs and ambiance of his office. He has done so in what he has said and what he has not said, in the stories he tells and in his consistent call to us to live into God's call, deeply appreciating human frailty and deeply trusting God's grace to work through it. For Charlie, it has not been about winning arguments or having power. It has been about serving God and serving others and yet what power have we seen in that practice of servanthood.
For all these reasons, we can say without hesitation that Charlie Cook is the emodiment of servant leadership. So to honor Charlie's contribution to the life of the faculty of this seminary and his legacy of collaboration and commitment, the Faculty of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest has established
The Charles J. Cook Award in Servant Leadership to be given annually to a person whose life and work exemplify the essence of servant leadership - that disposition of the heart to put the good of the whole at the center of one's vocation.
