Special Recognition Award

For more than 20 years, Deborah Oakman has served The University Congregation of Pacific Lutheran University as Sacristan. Ms. Oakman makes the bread for the weekly observance of Holy Communion and donates the ingredients. She has worked tirelessly each year on the major worship celebrations on campus: Orientation Sunday, Homecoming Worship and, until last year, Commencement Worship. These services require a great deal of special setup, and for communion at least four times the bread preparation of a regular Sunday.

Over the years, Ms. Oakman has been a mentor to students who assist her in setting up the worship space, giving them an education as to what each element of worship is and what it means to the worshipping community.

One of the longstanding traditions of The University Congregation is the Ritual of Blessing and Sending of senior students before Commencement, which involves singing The Servant Song as the University Pastors place around each student’s shoulders a towel that says, “UCong.” Ms. Oakman has kept account of the towels, making sure they are pressed and ready to be given. Each student then keeps the towel as a remembrance of his or her time at PLU and the calling to vocations in the world. Ms. Oakman even sewed towels for the Ritual of Sending and Blessing (Toweling Service) for Commencement 2015.