Rev. Dr. Michael K. Washington (G-ETS ’05 & ’24) and Rev. Dr. Lynn Pries (ETS ’71 & G-ETS ’86)

At this year’s Homecoming on November 5-7, Garrett-Evangelical will celebrate two distinguished alums, offering tribute for decades of dedicated ministry and pastoral care. Rev. Dr. Lynn Pries (ETS ’71 & G-ETS ’86) and Rev. Dr. Michael K. Washington (G-ETS ’05 & ’24) both embody the spirit of servant leadership and commitment to compassion, justice, and professional excellence that is Garrett-Evangelical’s audacious hope for its graduates. Register and join us on Wednesday, November 5 from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. CT as we confer well-deserved awards to commemorate that faithful legacy.

While both recipients have served extensively as chaplains, each is quick to name how they understand that work as part of broader call to ministry. “Chaplaincy is a pastoral expression for me, even though as an academic field they stand apart,” Dr. Washington explains, reflecting on his work at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “I came to understand my own ministry calling through a congregation where a community told me, ‘We see these things in you.’ Everything that comes afterward I link not just to individual mentors and ministry, but the wider community who affirms how God speaks to me about what I do.”

Dr. Pries similarly connects his experience serving as a campus chaplain at North Central College to foundational experiences he had while studying at Evangelical Theological Seminary. “My first semester, we drove into Chicago to see what Rev. Jim Neuman was doing as a pastor at Humboldt Park United Methodist Church,” he recalls. “He was very concerned about his pastoral responsibility to care for members. He taught me, no matter where you’re serving, these are wonderful people who deserve excellent pastoral leadership.”

While their chaplaincy contexts may be different, there are strong resonances between their ethos of care. “In my pastoral care classes, it was impressed on me that our primary responsibility is to listen and care for people, to love them and help them know that you think they are important,” Dr. Pries says. “Those words guided my ministry.” That ministry of presence rhymes with how Dr. Washington names the joy he finds. “I’m aware of the holiness of the moment,” he says. “You see lots of sober experiences—lots of death and sadness. But there’s also so many glimmers: babies that are born, people who recover, folks who are experiencing, ‘maybe my body doesn’t do what I want it to do, but I can still feel the love of my family,’ all these openings for healing to occur.”

For Dr. Washington, that holy gift extends to the role he now occupies as a mentor to younger chaplains. “I feel the impact of my teachers, so present in my ministry through their wisdom, offerings, and instruction,” he says. “So when I’m connecting with the next generation, I’m still holding love for those who came before me. It makes me want to come correct, to study and to focus. I want to serve but also contribute to those who come after me.” Looking back on a long career, Dr. Pries shares how that feeling of interconnectedness is what he treasures most. From leading service trips to Appalachia to creating space for LGBTQIA+ students to come out in chapel long before the United Methodist Book of Discipline offered the same affirmation, he brought Evangelical Theological Seminary’s conviction in God’s love and justice into students’ lives and witnessed its impact. “It feels really good to know that the relationships you formed matter,” he confesses. “I’m so grateful to know that people learned about the needs of the world and grew in their faith in part because I was their college chaplain.”

As Dr. Washington notes, religion is made manifest through its concrete impact on the world. “Faith has to make a difference to the important matters of a person’s life or faith doesn’t make a difference at all,” he says with conviction. “If people’s relationship with God matters, it matters for their mattered bodies, their corporeal reality. It’s not just about staying in divinity; it brings you back to your humanity. So let’s talk about your blood pressure—we must regard the human dimension just as explicitly as the spiritual dimension.”Ultimately, both recipients’ testimony speak to the seminary’s enduring legacy, steady love throughout a changing landscape. While they studied decades apart and received their MDivs on different campuses, a shared faith guides them: Care for one person at a time, as deeply and well as we can; through that love that they will see God’s presence in their lives.

We invite you to join us in expressing our love and gratitude for these two faithful leaders. Come home to Garrett-Evangelical, connect with old friends and new ones, and may we likewise recognize what God is building in our midst.