The Rev. John L. McCullough has been re-elected to lead the global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) as executive director and CEO for four more years.
CWS ― which celebrated 65 years of service in 2011 ― is a global relief, development and refugee assistance agency supported by 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States and by private donations. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one of CWS’s key partners.
With hunger as its key focus, CWS partners with grassroots organizations in vulnerable communities throughout the world to address both the immediate and the underlying causes of hunger. The agency sponsors more than 1500 CWS CROP Hunger Walks each year in communities across the U.S., which raise millions of dollars to support domestic and global hunger-fighting programs.
The agency's global development programs, ranging from systems to improve access to safe water to agricultural co-ops to insure adequate supplies of nutritious food in vulnerable communities, are designed so that local communities are able to manage and sustain them independently.
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Mable Parker McLean, president emerita of Barber-Scotia College, died of heart failure on Jan. 27 at the age of 89. McLean, an alumnus of Barber-Scotia, made history in 1974 when she became the ninth president of the 107-year old institution and the first female president. She served for 18 years: 1974-1988, 1994-1996, and as interim 2006-2007.
McLean earned her undergraduate education at Barber-Scotia College and Johnson C. Smith University and her doctorate from Howard University. She did post-graduate work at Northwestern University, the Catholic University and Harvard University.
During her 60-year career, McLean also made history as the first female elected to chair the Council of Presidents of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). She served the PC(USA) as a member of the Committee on Higher Education and its Sub-Committee on Racial/Ethnic Schools and Colleges; as an adjunct professor at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa.; as a member of the board of visitors of Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C.; and as a member of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic.
She is survived by her son, Randall, and his wife Alisha; four grandchildren; and a host of other family and friends. Services were held Jan. 31 at Barber-Scotia College in Concord, N.C., and Feb. 1 at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C.
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The Rev. Guy Liagre, president of the United Protestant Church in Belgium, has been named general secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) as of June 2012. He was elected at CEC’s central committee meeting in Geneva last week.
Liagre, who was born in 1957, studied at the Protestant Theological Faculty in Brussels. He served as pastor of churches in Menen (1984-90) and Brussels (1990-2005) before being elected president of the United Protestant Church in 2005 and re-elected in 2009.
He is active in the World Methodist Council, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. He was a delegate at the CEC assemblies in Trondheim and Lyon and is currently a member of CEC's Church and Society Commission.
Founded in 1959, CEC is a fellowship of some 120 Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant, and Old Catholic Churches in Europe and of 40 associated organizations. CEC has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg.