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October 24, 2008
Notes about people
Hugh McCullum, a Canadian journalist who exposed the killing of nearly a million people in Rwanda in 1994 and who harshly criticized the religious and secular media for its silence during the genocide, died in Toronto Oct. 16. He was 76.
“We in the church press didn’t care enough to write about it and when we finally did, it was defensive and apologetic and never named the ‘genocidaires’ amongst our denominations who preached hate Sunday by Sunday and unleashed a horror the world has not seen since World War II,” McCullum once said. He had become director of information and communication for the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches the year before the genocide and wrote thousands of words about it, but few others paid any attention.
“I found myself shocked, frightened, frustrated and, increasingly, enraged at this thing called the international community and its almost obscene inability to understand, to act effectively and to speak consistently,” wrote McCullum, a contributor to Ecumenical News International and its predecessor, the Ecumenical Press Service.
McCullum, the son of an Anglican priest, arrived in Africa in 1989 to work for the Harare-based Southern African Research and Documentation Center, and as the southern African correspondent for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail. His previous stints included working for several Canadian newspapers, and editing the two largest-circulation church publications in Canada: the Canadian Churchman and the United Church Observer.
McCullum relished editorial independence. “I used to worry a lot about journalistic standards and ethics in those days and fought some fairly bitter battles with the leaders of a couple of Canadian churches to make sure that editorial independence meant just that — that we were journalists first and institutional hacks second,” he told the Associated Church Press when it honored him in 2004.
McCullum was predeceased by his son Kevin, and survived by sons John and Matthew, and daughter Susan, brother James, and several grandchildren.
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More Light Presbyterians (MLP) — an organization dedicated to the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Presbyterians in the full life of the church, including service as ordained elders, deacons and ministers — has named Toby Rogers as its associate director for marketing and development.
Rogers steps into a new position created through a grant from The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco and a number of MLP supporters. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he has worked with numerous non-profit organizations, including farmworkers groups, the AFL-CIO and the San Jose Development Corporation, a program to train welfare recipients how to start their own small businesses.
He comes to MLP after seven years as a research assistant to the Rev. Jack Rogers, moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the PC(USA), where he was involved in editing and marketing Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church.
The Rev. Richard Lee Terry Jr., who after serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II served the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for more than 50 years, died Sept. 23 at age 81.
A California native, Terry graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, WA, and San Francisco Theological Seminary after his naval service in Hawaii. He served churches in Prescott and Seattle, WA; Ojai, South Pasadena, Los Alamitos and San Luis Obispo, CA; Malin, Newburg and Warren, OR; Boise, ID; and Baltimore. During his years of ministry, he also visited China, Europe, and the Holy Land.
Terry is survived by his wife, Virginia, five children and nine grandchildren. Services were held Oct. 19 at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Fullerton, CA.
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The Rev. Robert B. McLaren, co-founder of the Child Development Program and the Department of Comparative Religion at California State University at Fullerton, died Oct. 9. He was 85.
Renowned in his fields, McLaren wrote seven books and lectured all over the world on child development and comparative religion.
McLaren is survived by two children, five granddaughters and three great-grandchildren. Services were held Oct. 19.
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