Prof. Michael Battle awarded the Clement Clarke Moore medal at 2023 Commencement
Proclamation by the Board of Trustees:
The Very Rev. Michael Battle Ph.D. – you have served as a professor at General Theological Seminary since 2015. During your tenure in this place you have taught, co-taught, or had oversight of 65 course sections, with responsibility for 171 instructional credits. As a result, countless students have been shaped by your theological and ethical approaches. Your passion for your mentor and friend, the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has now been shared with a significant segment of the Episcopal Church. You have been the vehicle that brought the ethics of Tutu to the Episcopal Church in America.
As a scholar, you are highly regarded. Your work on Ubuntu became defining for the Episcopal Church. Drawing on the theology of Desmond Tutu, you published the book Ubuntu: I in You and You in me. Your book The Black Church in America has been rightly acclaimed as a substantial and important study. And your scholarship in the areas of “reconciliation in a violent world” and “peacemakers” have attracted a significant following. It was not surprising that you have been honored with the “Six Preacher” title from the Archbishop of Canterbury. And you have been in demand as a chaplain for, among others, Congressman John Lewis, the House of Bishops, and, in 2008, for the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops.
Even with this international profile, students have found you pastoral and affirming as a teacher. And as the organizer of several pilgrimages to South Africa, the pilgrims have appreciated the pastor and the priest who leads the journey. You weave together a remarkable intellect, a compelling presence in the classroom, with a deep commitment to your priestly and pastoral duties.
With your wife Raquel, you have been blessed with three amazing children – Sage, Bliss, and Zion. Your presence in New York has been a gift to this institution and to the wider church. For all this, and more, the Board of General Theological Seminary is pleased to confer on you the Clement Clarke Moore Medal.
