The 2011 Hal Brook Perry Award
Kyle Dice Seage
Parish priest, diocesan leader, stewardship advisor, inveterate fundraiser. You have a passion for God’s work that has not waned since you first felt a call to ordained ministry as a youngster at Camp McDowell in Alabama, your mother diocese. After graduation from University of the South, you became Alumni Director at Millsaps College before heading to Seminary of the Southwest as a postulant from the diocese of Mississippi.
Creative, energetic and flexibility have characterized your ministry. You have been pastor to congregations in transition and congregations of various sizes—family, pastoral, and program; you have facilitated a stewardship consultation group that you helped found; you have been president of the standing committee, and coordinator of fundraising efforts on your diocesan staff.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated Christ Church, Bay St. Louis, one month after you completed your ministry of interim rector there, the bishop asked you to lead a capital campaign, “Darkness into Day”, which raised over $3 million for desperately needed relief and rebuilding for the churches on the Gulf Coast. That campaign exceeded its goal, and like the churches you’ve served directly, the beneficiaries saw stability and hope return to their midst.
Your sense of humor is a gift appreciated by many, including your canon to the ordinary. He also observes that you have a marvelous sense of balance between your vocational role of priest and your role as parent and spouse. Your friends and family also know that if not ministering as a priest, your other passion, cooking, would be your call. Perhaps this is no surprise to those in your care, whether it be your daughters, your guests, or your parishioners. They see in your very presence one who knows God’s abundant love and one whose enthusiasm and devotion feeds the spirit and the community with exactly what they are hungry for.
In recognition of your faithful ministry to the Church and to her people, we are delighted to award you the 2011 Hal Brook Perry Distinguished Alumni Award.
Douglas Travis Chad Vaughn
Dean and President Alumni Association President
