Also at yesterday’s literary exercises, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Minister of Memorial Church Peter J. Gomes presented three faculty members with awards for their teaching.

Gurney Professor of English Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature James Engell, Leverett House Master and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Howard Georgi ’68 and Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government Peter A. Hall all received the distinctions.

Along with a personalized citation, the recipients of the teaching awards were given an envelope with contents that were kept secret, but which Gomes said he remembered being “thrilled” about when he was given the award last year.

Schama, too, was awarded one of these teaching awards as a Harvard professor in 1987.

Three faculty members, one visiting scholar and the two speakers were also given honorary membership yesterday into the Massachusetts chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Following the speeches, members of Phi Beta Kappa and their guests attended an informal lunch at Dudley. The lunch was to be following with a “secret ritual,” said Diana L. Eck, a Harvard professor who is the president of Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

—Staff writer Katherine M. Dimengo can be reached at dimengo@fas.harvard.edu.