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CDSP grants three honorary doctorates at fall convocation
The Rev. Josephine (Phina) Borgeson, vocational deacon, educator, and correspondent for Episcopal Life, and the Rev. Jack Hilyard, canon for program and planning for the Diocese of Oregon, were awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree. Barbara Borsch, longtime community activist and advocate for religious education, received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
In his sermon, President and Dean Donn F. Morgan said, "While Barbara, Jack, and Phina each bring special and different messages for us, what they share is equally powerful.Through their deep convictions and passion about education in a wide variety of times and places, they would strongly affirm the need for an educational vision . . . In creating and sustaining such a learning community, they would urge us to pay attention to developments and disciplines and institutions outside the church, even outside the influence and interest of religious cultures."
Phina Borgeson began her career as a public school science teacher, and worked in religious education and ministry development in Nevada and Southern California. She has served on many committees and working groups for the Episcopal Church. She is a founding member of the Ministry Developers' Collaborative, a member and coordinator of the Sindicators network, a member of the national church's Total Ministry Task Force, and ministry developer for the Redwood Episcopal Cluster in the Diocese of Northern California. She is also a founding member and former president of the North American Association for the Diaconate.
Borgeson is a member of and consultant to the Executive Council Committee on Science, Technology and Faith. She writes on science and environmental topics for Episcopal Life Media, the news service of the Episcopal Church, and co-wrote the recently published Catechism of Creation.
Barbara Borsch served a six-year term on the Episcopal Church's Board for Theological Education, during which she chaired the project on recruitment for the ordained ministries of the Church. She received a fellowship for study at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in connection with that project.
Borsch has been involved for many years in the support and program of St. George's College, Jerusalem, as a member of St. George's North American Regional Committee. A warden and member of three church vestries, she has also been active in a number of community organizations, among them the Friends of Neighborhood Youth Association and the UCLA Arts Council. Borsch is an honorary canon of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in the Diocese of Los Angeles, where her husband, the Rt. Rev. Frederick Borsch, served as bishop from 1988 to 2002.
Beginning in 1973, Jack Hilyard spent 23 years serving the people and leadership of the Diocese of Oregon as director of Christian education, and later as canon for program and planning.
He served as curate of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Portland before becoming vicar of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Newport and St. James Episcopal Church in Lincoln City. He then spent nearly 10 years as a college chaplain, first at the University of Oregon in Eugene and then at Michigan State University in Lansing, before joining the diocesan staff.
Hilyard was one of the Episcopal Church's first Regional Religious Education Coordinators. In Oregon, he helped plan and present a diocesan certificate program for directors of religious education in which educators from around the diocese gathered on a monthly basis for continuing education. He also helped design family education events and training, and co-wrote the book Becoming Family with Sr. Jeanette Benson, S.P.
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