Southwest student wins preaching prize

The Rev. David Peters, Army chaplain and student at Seminary of the Southwest, has won the inaugural 2015 Reconciliation Preaching Prize by Trinity Wall Street in New York. He will preach his sermon at a special service on Friday, September 11, 2015 at St. Paul’s Chapel, which is part of the Trinity parish and sits across from the World Trade Center. St. Paul’s was undamaged in the attacks of 9/11 and became an important place of rest for volunteers and responders.
“Seminary of the Southwest was the first community that welcomed me after I left the active army”, says David. “I needed community, which is the first necessary ingredient to reconciliation, more than I knew at the time.  The relationships I found here have sustained me in my work with veterans in the Episcopal Veterans Fellowship. In fact, Southwest enabled me to launch EVF with two fellow students in 2014. I’ve learned so much here about theology, relationships, and how to be part of God’s reconciling work in the world.”
David is a senior in the master of arts in religion program at Southwest. He is founder of Episcopal Veterans Fellowship and assistant to the rector at Grace Church, Georgetown, Texas. Peters earned a master of divinity degree at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA and a doctor of ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, SC. David is author of Death Letter: God, Sex, and War published by Tactical 16.
Read the AP story on David’s prize
Read the Fort Hood Sentinel story about David’s sermon