The gala dinner and program in Great Hall included more than 130 current faculty and staff, as well as current Religion majors and alumni. Carolyn Fure-Slocum '82, herself an alumna of the department, gave the invocation, and President Robert Oden, also a member of the department, praised the Religion Department as 'possibly the best in the country.' David Smith '61, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Indiana University, who graduated from Carleton before the Department offered a major, served as master of ceremonies for the evening.

Anne Patrick offered introductions of the emeriti faculty in the Department: Ian Barbour, David Maitland, Bardwell Smith and Richard Crouter, and remembered Bob Wood, as adjunct member of the Department for many years who passed away in 1996. Mohn Mason '68, Judith Berling '67 and Jewelnel David, former Carleton Chaplain and Carleton Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa praised the work of our senior colleagues. Additional tributes from Parker Palmer and Robert Russell, who could not attend the event, were read, and Grace Huenemann '66 offered her heartfelt words of appreciation.

A slide presentation containing historic pictures of the Department was shown and archival materials related to the founding of the Department in 1955 were on display. David Maitland supplemented with with reminiscences of the ethos of the College in the years just before and after the Department was established.