Three to receive honorary degrees from CDSP

Leader of “Nuns on the Bus” to give commencement address

BERKELEY, Calif. – Honorary degrees from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific will be awarded in May to retired House of Deputies President Dr. Bonnie Anderson, Sister Simone Campbell SSS, and Bishop Mark Hollingsworth, Jr. of the Diocese of Ohio.
The three are being honored for distinguished service to the Church and ministries in the world.

Sister Simone, the executive director of NETWORK based in Washington D.C., will also deliver the commencement address at graduation exercises on May 24 at CDSP.

The three honorary degree recipients will participate in a public panel discussion on May 23 moderated by CDSP President and Dean Mark Richardson. The topic of the discussion is “The Church and the Moral and Spiritual Future of America.”

Sr. Campbell, who is a Catholic nun in the order of the Sisters of Social Service, is best known as the leader of the “Nuns on the Bus” that toured the country last year drawing attention to how proposed federal budget cuts would hurt the poor. As the executive director of NETWORK, Sr. Simone was instrumental in garnering the support of Catholic leaders for passage of the Affordable Health Care Act in 2010. NETWORK is currently immersed in immigration reform issues.

Dr. Anderson served as president of General Convention’s House of Deputies from 2006 to 2012. Her advocacy for the environment and people directly affected by environmental degradation earned her a gubernatorial appointment in her home state to the Michigan Environmental Review Board. Dr. Anderson has served as vice president of the House of Deputies; chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance; an Executive Council member; and an Executive Council elected representative to The Episcopal Church Investment Committee.
In her home Diocese of Michigan, she has held several positions including Canon to the Ordinary, President of the Standing Committee, and Chair of Constitution and Canons.

Bishop Hollingsworth is the 11th Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from CDSP in 1981.
In his ministry as a priest, he has served schools and churches in California, Kentucky and Massachusetts. He was elected bishop in Ohio in 2003.
Bp. Hollingsworth has served at many levels of The Episcopal Church, including in AIDS ministry and as a conference leader for CREDO.
In 2009, Bp. Hollingsworth joined seven other cyclists in bicycling across the country to raise funds for Episcopal Relief and Development’s NetsforLife campaign.
He also founded the innovative program, “Epiphany at Sea,” that takes inner city middle school students to sea on traditional fishing schooners. He has also served on the Board of Trustees for CDSP from 2002 to 2012.