Stewart Caffey received the Kate Warnick Award for 2016 for his book titled Sidney Methodist Church (in the small church category.) The announcement was made at the state-wide meeting of the Texas United Methodist Historical Society in Richardson, Texas on April 29, 2017.
The Kate Warnick Award has been given annually by the Texas United Methodist Historical Society since its inception in 1978. Named for Kate Warnick (Mrs. John H. Warnick), it is given in honor of her long-time service as the curator of the Methodist Collection at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University and for her keen interest in documenting United Methodist history.
It honors the best local United Methodist church histories published in the sponsoring eight Annual Conferences (Texas, North Texas, Central Texas, Southwest Texas, Northwest Texas, Rio Grande, New Mexico, and Oklahoma Indian Mission) during the preceding calendar year. The annual awards competition encourages and celebrates the research, writing, and publication of histories of local churches.
The Award is given in three categories, depending on the size of the membership of the local church. A small church award goes to the best history from a church of less than 500 members, a middle church award for histories from congregations of between 500 and 1,000 members, and a large church award for congregations over 1,000 members.
The Award consists of (1) a plaque to be presented to the winning congregations, usually at the meeting of the appropriate Annual Conference immediately following the selection and (2) addition of the name of the church to the cumulative award plaques housed in Bridwell Library at Perkins School of Theology, SMU in Dallas.
In addition, three hard copies of the completed work should be forwarded to the Warnick Committee chair; two of which will be retained in the archives at Bridwell Library, and one of which will be forwarded to the General Commission on Archives and History at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.