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Harrison Simons receives honorary doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary
Virginia Bishop Peter J. Lee, who is also chair of the VTS board of trustees, awarded the degree.
Simons spent almost his entire ministry as rector and vicar of small churches. For a short time he served as the rector of churches in King George County, Virginia, and then, from 1970 until his retirement in 1997, he was rector of St. Stephen's and vicar of St. Cyprian's, Oxford, North Carolina. During that time he modeled the kind of ministry which enables small churches to be alive and exciting, according to a VTS news release. His long pastorate brought stability and pastoral continuity to his two congregations and to the community of Oxford, the release said.
Simons started the Education Liturgy Resources Bookstore he created in 1979. The bookstore began in a room in St. Stephen's Parish House and now includes the bookstore at Kanuga conference center in North Carolina, displays and sales at numerous diocesan conventions, and a mailing service which reaches across the country. The proceeds, which are more than $100,000 a year, are shared with the Diocese of North Carolina and support small churches.
Simons is also chaplain to the Oxford Fire Department, one of the few clergy members of the Oxford Chamber of Commerce, and active in the Kiwanis Club, serving as president for a time.
Simons was awarded the prestigious Reynolds Foundation Racism Award in 1997 for his work at St. Cyprian's and also received the outstanding citizen award in 1989 from the Chamber of Commerce as well as the Jaycees' distinguished service award in 1983. His college, Randolph-Macon, awarded Simons its distinguished alumni award in 1998, and he was named the Christian educator of the year in the Diocese of North Carolina in 1993.
Virginia Seminary is the largest of the eleven seminaries of the Episcopal Church and was founded in 1823.
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