The Charles Elliott Weniger Award

Nobobdy could have been more surprised than I was when last July I received a message from dr. Bernard Taylor, the president of the Charles Elliott Weniger Society for Excellence that I was one of the four persons the board of this society had chosen as the 2020 recipients of the Charles Elliott Weniger Award of Excellence.

This was what he wrote to me by way of explanation: Seminary dean, English professor, gifted public speaker, Charles Elliott Weniger influenced a generation of ministers through his classes in homiletics at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary in the 1950s. His students remembered him for his modeling of excellence and his kindness, the two proving to be an inspiring combination. In 1974, ten years after the death of Dr Weniger, three of his friends established the society to honor his memory and the qualities of excellence that were paramount in his life. Through its annual award program, the Society seeks to identify and recognize the contributions made to the world by Adventists with similar significant traits of character.

I was informed that the 2020 awards would be given during a ceremony in Loma Linda on February 15. Besides myself, the persons to be honored are Dr. Andrea T. Luxton, president of Andrews University, Dr. Richard T. Hart, president of Loma Linda University and Dr. A Danoune Diop, director of the department of public affairs and religious liberty of the General Conference of the Adventist world church.

The awards have now been given for some 45 years and many leader and scholars in the church have been honored with this ‘award of excellence’. Among them are such eminent men and women as Jan Paulsen, Bert B. Beach, Nils-Erik Andreasen, Ella Simmons, Lyn Behrens, Roy Branson, William Johnsson, Richard Rice, and Fritz Guy—just to name some of them.

The program for the Award ceremonies on February 15 will begin at 4.30 pm and will be held in the Loma Linda University Church. It will be streamed via the LLBN (Loma Linda Broadcasting Network). For those interested, the link is: https://www.llbn.tv/home. Note that 4.30 pm is the local time in California, which is 1.30 am Dutch time and 2.30 am UK time.

One thought on “The Charles Elliott Weniger Award

  1. JAL. Koeweiden

    Beste Reinder, van harte gefeliciteerd met deze eervolle onderscheiding!!! Wij zien uit naar het feest.

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