Turquoise Chalice Award Past Honorees
2007 Award Recipient: The Rev. Joel P. Garner, O.Praem.
Rev. Joel P. Garner, O.Praem., a member of the Norbertine Community, has been in pastoral leadership at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary parish in Albuquerque as well as Prior of the Norbertine Santa Maria de la Vid Priory since 1985. Prior to coming to New Mexico he was a member of the Religious Studies faculty and pastor of the campus parish at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. He also directed a summer Theological Institute at the college for fifteen years. Later he became Director of Formation for the Seminarians and the founding director of the Norbertine Spirituality Center at St. Norbert Abbey. Fr. Garner has been involved in a number of ecumenical activities. He chairs the board of the Ecumenical Institute for Ministry, the educational efforts of which include a Masters of Theological Studies degree in cooperation with St. Norbert College. He is also a member of the project team of Called Back to the Well, an ecumenical program for clergy spiritual renewal funded by the Lilly Endowment. He has been a clergy participant in Albuquerque Interfaith, a broad-based community organizing effort which teaches people how to be active, effective citizens in working toward the improvement of the quality of life in their neighborhoods and city. Fr. Garner holds a Masters Degree in Theology from Marquette University in Milwaukee and a Doctorate in Religion and Education from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University in New York City.
2006 Award Recipient: J. Paul Taylor
Mr. Taylor served for three decades in the Las Cruces Public Schools as a teacher, principal and as Associate Superintendent for Instruction. A long-time historian and activist, Mr. Taylor was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 1988 and served until 2002. He has championed the causes of children, the elderly, the poor, the arts and historic preservation. Paul Taylor is descended from a family with deep roots and a record of public service in New Mexico, stretching back to the second wave of Spanish colonists who arrive in 1600, to ancestors who served in the Territorial Legislature. In 2002 Taylor and his wife, Mary, decided to bequest their historic home on the Mesilla plaza and collections to the state to be operated as a State Monument. They also leave their extensive collection of historic furnishings, art objects and paintings. The Taylors' have raised seven children and all have a deep commitment to the Mesilla community. Mr. Taylor is a Roman Catholic in the Diocese of Las Cruces.
2005 Award Recipient: Bishop Minerva Carcaño
The Reverend Minerva Carcaño is the first Hispanic clergywoman to be elected a United Methodist bishop. She has a master’s degree from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and a bachelor’s degree with a specialization in social work from the University of Texas–Pan American in Edinburgh. With a wide-ranging history of service in the United Methodist Church, she was previously the superintendent of the Metropolitan District of the Oregon-Idaho Conference. From 1996 to 2001, she served as director of the Mexican-American Program, the Hispanic Studies Program, coordinator of the Spanish Language Section of the Course of Study School and adjunct faculty at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
Bishop Carcaño has also been a district superintendent in the Rio Grande Conference, an organizing pastor in Albuquerque, and from 1979 to 1992 was pastor of local churches throughout Texas. She was a director of the former United Methodist Board of Education and has served as a director on the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the United Methodist Publishing House. She served on two General Conference commissions–The Theological Task and the Connectional Process Team and on the South Central and Western jurisdictions’ Korean ministry councils. She was a delegate to the 1996 and 2004 General Conferences and to the 1998 World Council of Churches Assembly in Zimbabwe, Africa.
Bishop Carcaño was the first woman President of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Conference of Churches.
2004 Award Recipient: Alice M. King
As First Lady of New Mexico, Alice M. King simply had too many accomplishments and honors to enumerate here. She chaired the Governorâs Task Force on Children and Families in 1991, holding Town Meetings across the state and developing recommendations for restructuring state government services for children. Mrs. King led the lobbying effort, which resulted in the creation of a first-in-the-nation Children, Youth and Families Department.
The Turquoise Chalice Award and Benefit dinner was attended by many people who were excited about Mrs. King receiving this prestigious honor in addition to numerous others for her work with families, youth and children.
2003 Award Recipient: Father Ernie Falardeau
A packed ballroom at La Posada Hotel in Albuquerque was on hand to participate in the first annual Turquoise Chalice Award and Benefit dinner. The evening’s speaker was noted New Mexico Author, Tony Hillerman (left). The award went to Father Ernie Falardeau (right), long time deputy for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to the New Mexico Conference of Churches. Father Falardeau was the chair of the Faith and Order Task Force for five years at the NMCC. He assisted in forming several ongoing dialogues with the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande and with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Rocky Mountain Synod. A number of important initiatives were begun such as the signing of a special relationship with the diocese of the Rio Grande and the celebration of the Justification by Faith Accord between the Vatican and the World Lutheran Federation in 1999.
Fr. Falardeau has received a number of awards for his ecumenical minoistry, notably the 1997 James Fitzgerald Award for “outstanding contribution and service to Christian unity” by the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (NADEO) and the New Mexico Conference of Churches’ Ecumenical Pioneer Award in 1989 and Twenty Years of Service Award from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1999.
A native of Holyoke, Massachusetts, Fr. ernie Falardeau, S.S.S. is a member of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers and Brothers, ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1965.
