08739
October 9, 2008

Notes about people

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

When Texas's largest ecumenical network, the Texas Conference of Churches (TCC) meets in Dallas Nov. 17-18 to complete a year of  re-visioning its mission and purpose, it will be led by a Presbyterian.

The president of TCC is Rev. Richard Schempp, executive presbyter of Palo Duro Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The November gathering — which includes worship, presentations, discussions and fellowship —  is centered on ecumenism in the world, nation and Texas.

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The Rev. Martha S. Gilliss of the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky has been named a GreenFaith Fellowand will join the 2008 Class of theGreenFaith Fellowship Program. The Fellowship Program is the first comprehensive education and training program in the U.S. to prepare lay and ordained leaders from interfaith religious traditions for religiously based environmental leadership.  

Gilliss, a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University (Ph.D.), was formerly and adult curriculum developer and editor for Congregational Ministries Publishing in Louisville, where she still resides. She has also taught at Bellarmine University in Lousville.

Gilliss will join a class of more than 20 fellows from diverse religious backgrounds, including including Roman Catholics, mainline Protestant, leaders of  historically Black churches, and Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish leaders. 

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Robert Thompson, interim director of funds development for Communications and Funds Development of the General Assembly Council, is undergoing rehabilitation after suffering a stroke nearly two weeks ago.

Thompson, who lives in Pittsburgh, is expected to fully recover.

In a little over a year, Thompson, among other things, spearheaded a last-ditch drive that brought an additional $10 million into the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands, raising the campaign total to more than $30 million. The five-year, $40 million effort to raise funds for new overseas mission workers and for new church development in this country, formally concluded with the recent 218th General Assembly.

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The Rev. C. Richard Brown, a longtime pastor and executive in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) died Oct. 6 in Oxford, PA.

A 1946 graduate of Western Theological Seminary, Brown began his ministry as a missionary in the Philippines. He subsequently served pastorates in Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. He served as executive presbyter for Sierra Blanca Presbytery from 1976-1988, and then took an interim pastorate in Brownsfield, TX.

He joined Santa Fe Presbytery in 1990, serving as visitation pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Albuquerque until his retirement in 1996, when he was named pastor emeritus.

Brown served two terms as president of the New Mexico Conference of Church, was  a member of the Board of Managers of Friendship Press, and served a brief term on the Church-wide Administrative Coordinating Cabinet.

Condolences may be sent to his widow, Mrs. Vivian Brown, 115 Kensington Lane, Oxford, PA 19363.

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Long-time Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  mission co-worker Dennis Smith, who serves in Guatemala, has been elected president of the World Association of Christian Communicators.

WACC, a highly-regarded international and ecumenical group of Christian communicators, is holding its annual meeting in South Africa.

Smith previously served as WACC regional president for the Latin American Region, the first North American to be so honored.

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The Rev. Richard W. Irwin, a retired Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission worker who served in Brazil from 1947-1995, died there Sept. 26. He was 88.

Irwin had continued living in Brazil after his retirement and served on the pastoral team of First Presbyterian Church in Sao Paulo until his death. He also was a columnist for the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil’s newspaper.

During his 48-year term for the PC(USA) in Brazil, Irwin taught liturgy at Sao Paulo Seminary, an institution of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil. He also used media to acquaint many in Brazilian society with Protestantism. He produced the country’s first Protestant film as well as dramas and cartoons for television.

Services were conducted at First Presbyterian Church in Sao Paulo on Sept. 27, and he was buried in Brazil’s first cemetery for Protestants near the grave of A. G. Simonton, the first Presbyterian missionary to Brazil.

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Barry Almy, former regional liaison for Sudan and Ethiopia for the PC(USA)’s World Mission office, has been named development officer for the Great Lakes and Northeast by the Medical Benevolence Foundation.

Almy and his wife Betsy, a PC(USA) minister, lived in Khartoum during their 12 years of mission service. He joins Pam Ator, Lynn Workman and Molly Wyenberg on the staff of MBF, a validated mission support group that works closely with Presbyterian World Mission.

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Yale Divinity School has presented its Alumni Award for Distinction in Theological Educationto the Rev. V. Bruce Rigdon, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor, theological educator, ecumenical leader and social activist.

Rigdon, one of the world’s foremost experts on Reformed-Orthodox relations, served as pastor of Grosse Pointe Memorial (Presbyterian) Church in Michigan from 1988-2002 and president of Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit from 1997-2006. Though now retired, he continues to teach at Ecumenical, McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA.

Rigdon, who holds B.D. M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale Divinity School, was an innovator in the globalization of theological education. In addition to his groundbreaking work in Russia, he has been active in the Middle East, and is currently president of the board of Pilgrims of Ibillin, an organization that supports and interprets the significance of institutions established in Galilee by Archbishop Elias Chacour to educate together Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Druze young people.