wfn.org | Notes About People

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

14-July-1999 
99239 
 
    Notes About People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    Rodger Nishioka, coordinator for youth and young adult ministries in 
the Congregational Ministries Division and the Presbyterian Church's 
leading authority on youth ministry, will leave his position on national 
staff in January 2000 to become associate professor of Christian education 
at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. 
    Nishioka's last responsibility as the denomination's youth ministry 
head will be to preside over a youth and young adult gathering in 
Indianapolis in late-December to mark the new millenium.  The gathering, 
Dec. 28-Jan. 1, looks to be the largest assemblage of Presbyterians ever 
held, with nearly 30,000 Presbyterian youth and young adults expected. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Investment and Loan Program has named 
James G. Rissler as its vice president and chief operating officer.  He 
succeeds Joey B. Bailey, who recently resigned from the position to serve 
as the Deputy Director for Mission Support Services with the denomination's 
General Assembly Council. 
    A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Rissler has worked in the banking 
industry for 17 years, most recently as vice-president of PNC Bank.  He is 
an elder at Harvey Browne Memorial Presbyterian Church in Louisville. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has appointed the Rev. 
Setri Nyomi, a theologian and pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church 
of Ghana, in west Africa, as its next general secretary.  Nyomi, at present 
a senior executive with Africa's main ecumenical organization, the All 
Africa Conference of Churches, will not only be WARC's first general 
secretary from Africa - he will be the first non-European general secretary 
of WARC, which was founded in 1875. 
    WARC was based in Edinburgh until 1948, and until then all general 
secretaries were Scottish. After the World Council of Churches was set up 
in Geneva following the Second World War, WARC moved its headquarters to 
the same city. Since then it has had two Swiss general secretaries, 
followed by Milan Opocensky, a Czech theologian who retires from the post 
next year after 10 years in the position. 
    Nyomi, 45, holds a Master's degree from Yale Divinity School and a 
Doctorate in Pastoral Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.  He is 
married to Akpene Esther. They have three children. He will begin working 
in Geneva next March. The five-year term is renewable. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Georges Tsetsis, who has served the ecumenical movement for more than 
30 years, the last 14 as the Permanent Representative of the Patriarchate 
of Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Church) to the World Council of Churches, 
has retired. 
             Tsetsis has published more than 70 articles on theological, 
liturgical and ecumenical issues in Greek, English and French during his 
40-year career in the church. 
    In a letter to His Holiness Bartholomew I, WCC general secretary Konrad 
Raiser praised Tsetsis as "a faithful servant of the teachings of the 
Gospel and a man of dialogue who has been able over the years -- in an 
outstanding way -- to combine faithfulness to his own tradition and 
openness to the richness of others, human relations and scientific 
research, simplicity of outlook 
and generosity of heart and spirit." 
    Tsetsis will continue to serve on the WCC's Central Committee and on 
its executive committee. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. Wilmina "Billie" Smith, the fist woman guest chaplain to offer 
the convening prayer at a U.S. Senate session, died June 5 at a retirement 
center near St. Petersburg, Fla.  She was 91. 
    In 1957, Smith was the sixth woman to be ordained a minister of the 
former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.  She was 
living in Philadelphia in 1971 when she was invited to offer her historic 
prayer in the Senate.  Later, she was moderator of the editing committee 
that prepared the final version of the Plan for Reunion in 1983. 
    A native of Augusta, Ga., Smith graduated from Warren Wilson College in 
Chambersburg, Pa..  She received a Master's Degree from Yale University and 
her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Heidi Hadsell will continue as director of the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland, under terms of 
an agreement reached between the WCC and McCormick Theological Seminary. 
    Hadsell took a leave of absence as professor and dean of the seminary 
two years ago to assume the Bossey post.  Under the WCC-McCormick 
agreement, she will resign as dean but her leave from her faculty position 
will be extended for up to two additional years. 

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