After review and in response to our current context we are changing the parameters for sermon submissions. We will now accept sermons submissions in video or audio form, as well as in text. We are also expanding to include sermons preached right up until the submission deadline of September 30. If you do not have a video or audio version of your sermon to submit, it is okay to record one and submit it along with your text. Please see below for fully revised submission requirements.
Any sermon preached in any congregation (by a preacher from any order) in the Diocese of Olympia from the First Sunday of Advent, 2019 (December 1, 2019) through September 30, 2020, is eligible for consideration. The award will be announced at the 2020 Diocesan Convention and the preacher will be given $1,000.
Sermons must be submitted by email to mkoski@ecww.org in one of the following formats: video recording, audio recording, or as a written text. If your file is too large to mail, Matt will work with you to figure out how to get it to us. If you have a written text as well as a video/audio please do submit both. If you do not submit a written sermon, please include along with your submission a document that includes 1. The Propers for the sermon, 2. The date and congregation for whom the sermon was originally preached, and 3. Full citations for anyone whose work (scholarly, journalistic, or anecdotal) that you include in your sermon. If you do submit a written sermon please include these items in the sermon document.
Nominations must be received by September 30, 2020. The winning sermon will be selected by a panel of lay and clergy readers.
The Criteria for the Judges: We have altered our submission criteria in order to acknowledge the reality that sermons are spoken events that cannot be accurately judged in written form and in hopes of including and recognizing a wider range of preaching methods and styles present in our diocese. Judges will be looking for a lectionary-based sermon that communicates the Good News of God in Christ both to long-timers and to newcomers or visitors to the congregation. The judges will be especially interested in receiving sermons that decode religious language so that those newer to the Episcopal Church can be evangelized within the context of worship.
Panel of Judges: A group of laity and clergy from the Diocese of Olympia
