The Rev. Dan Vigilante in the three stoles he received at his ordination and installation on August 25, 2013.

The Rev. Dan Vigilante wearing the three stoles he received at his ordination and installation on August 25, 2013.

In the fall of 2000 Daniel Vigilante and a carload of seminary friends drove from Princeton to the Covenant Network Conference at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

As students, their registration fees were waived by the Covenant Network; they shared the cost of gas and slept on the floor in his aunt’s apartment.  To this day, one of those students says of that conference experience, “It saved my life.  I realized that as a gay seminarian I did have a place in the ordained ministry of the PCUSA and all these people were going to make this journey with me.”

Daniel would go on to serve on the board of the Covenant Network board for many years, and the Daniel Vigilante Conference Scholarship for Seminarians was established by the board to celebrate his ordination 13 years later — the result of the successful passage of Amendment 10-A and Daniel’s faithfulness to his vocation and the church.  The Covenant Network is still making that  journey with seminary students, including waiving registration fees for all our national and regional conferences. This new scholarship will extend our welcome to seminarians further by providing some help with the costs of travel and lodging.

The first Vigilante Conference Scholarship will be awarded to a seminarian planning to attend the Marriage Matters conference October 31 to November 2, 2013, at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. Seminarians seeking assistance are invited to download the application here. Persons may also make contributions directly to support the Vigilante Scholarship Fund by clicking here and making a gift in honor of Daniel’s ordination.