WHEREAS, Jim (Cricket) Lowry has been a faithful and distinguished minister of the Presbyterian Church US and (USA);

WHEREAS, he has served with great distinction pastorates in Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee and on the Board of Trustees of Columbia Theological Seminary;

WHEREAS, he has been a preacher of uncommon power, whose sermons have not been casual homilies or easy entertainment, but the eloquent witness of a poet and pastor who has wrestled long with the Word of God;

WHEREAS, he has in his preaching carried his congregations deep into the pains and joys, the complexities and ambiguities of human experience, and has brought them out into the grace and love of God;

WHEREAS, his sermons and his books of sermons show him to be a pastor who knows the darkness of much of human life, and a preacher who stands in amazement before the One who is the light of the world;

WHEREAS, his pastoral work has always focused on those most often forgotten—the sick, the shut-in, the lonely, the grieving, the confused and tempest-tossed;

WHEREAS, his pastoral work has been bold and highly disciplined, carrying him regularly into homes and offices, cafes and night shelters, nursing homes and teenage gathering places, always resisting the temptation to remain in his office waiting for people to come see him;

WHEREAS, the integrity of his own life has been a model of Christian discipleship, encouraging in others a life of service, simplicity, and generous frugality, and exemplifying the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control;

WHEREAS, he has become a boat-builder in retirement, working not on an ark, but a little craft large enough to carry a few seminary classmates at a time on the waters of the Wateree;

THEREFORE, be it hereby resolved that Columbia Theological Seminary through its Alumni/ae Council presents to Jim Lowry its Distinguished Service Award and extends to him its gratitude for his witness and ministry in service to Jesus Christ.