wfn.org | Notes About People

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

24-August-1999 
99279 
 
    Notes About People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    Fannye L. Belt, a third year Presbyterian student at Johnson C. Smith 
Seminary in Atlanta, Ga., has been awarded the first scholarship by the 
Eugene Carson Blake Endowment for Ecumenical Leadership Development.  She 
will receive tuition, room and board for participation in the 49th Graduate 
School of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in 
Bossey, Switzerland. 
    The 1999 theme for the institute is "Christian Identity in a 
Religiously Plural World." 
    The Eugene Carson Blake Endowment was established in memory of Eugene 
Carson Blake a leading Presbyterian of the 20th Century.  In his years in 
Presbyterian ministry Blake served as pastor, as stated clerk of the United 
Presbyterian Church in the USA, as president of the National Council of 
Churches, and as general secretary of the World Council of Churches. 
    Belt anticipates a ministerial career in ecumenical relations and 
worldwide ministries.  She reports "It is my special desire to promote the 
involvement of black congregations in international ministries."  She 
recently completed a handbook titled "The New World Order: What does it 
mean 
to the Black Church?"  Belt also serves as a PC(USA) representative to the 
Interfaith Relations Committee of the National Council of the Churches. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Office of the General Assembly has announced the appointment of the 
Rev. Dennis Cobb as manager for assembly planning.  He is currently 
finishing a pastorate at First Presbyterian Church of Sheboygan, Wis., and 
will join the OGA staff Oct. 5. 
    Cobb will be responsible for overseeing the planning and managing of 
the General Assembly process in cooperation with other OGA staff and others 
throughout the church.  He has served as a volunteer OGA staff member 
during the last several General Assemblies. 
    Cobb is a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary and the 
University of Kansas School of Law. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    A Brazilian prize for human rights - The Alceu de Amoroso Lima Human 
Rights Prize - as been awarded posthumously to the Rev. Jaime Wright, a 
Presbyterian minister who played a crucial role in exposing human rights 
abuses committed under the military dictatorship which took power in Brazil 
in 1964.  Wright died of a heart attack on May 19 this year. 
    The prize, instituted in 1983, is  jointly awarded every two years by 
Alceu Amoroso Lima Centre for Freedom and the Candido Mendes University of 
Rio de Janeiro - to people and projects defending  human rights. 
    Wright was born in Brazil, the son of Presbyterian missionaries from 
the United States.  In September 1973, his younger brother, Paulo Stuart 
Wright,  a founder of the progressive student group AP (Popular Action) and 
a former state legislator who had joined the resistance to the military 
regime, was abducted and taken to secret police headquarters in Sao Paulo. 
He was never seen again. 
    In the early 1980s, with support from the World Council of Churches, 
Wright and Roman Catholic Archbishop Paulo Evaristo Arns organized a secret 
project to compile the records of numerous trials of political prisoners 
during the military dictatorship. The fruit of these labors, "Brasil: Nunca 
Mais" (Brazil: Never Again), was published in July 1985, just four months 
after General Joao Baptista Figueiredo stepped down from the presidency, 
opening the way to the gradual restoration of democracy. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    In the seemingly never-ending search to discover which Presbyterian was 
the first to be called to a Lutheran post under the terms of the "Formula 
of Agreement," the Presbyterian News Service has learned that the Rev. 
Benjamin Baldus, a member of Lake Michigan Presbytery, was installed to the 
Office of Governmental Affairs of Lutheran Social Services of Michigan on 
Dec. 12, 1998.  He was formerly minister of music for Westminster 
Presbyterian Church in Lansing, Mich. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. Kathryn Johnson, an American Baptist minister, has been named 
executive director of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic 
Violence in Seattle.  The center has worked closely with the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) in the development of sexual and domestic violence 
prevention ministries for the denomination. 
    She succeeds the Rev. Marie Fortune, who will remain with the center in 
the new position of "founder and senior analyst." 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. David T. Tomlinson, former executive for Los Ranchos 
Presbytery, has begun work as vice-president for the Southern California 
campus and professor of ministry at San Francisco Theological Seminary. 
    He succeeds the Rev. Jack Rogers, who retired at the end of July. 
    Tomlinson, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary with a D.Min. 
from McCormick Theological Seminary, has also served as an executive for 
the presbyteries of Boulder and Wyoming and the Synod of the Rocky 
Mountains.  He also has had experience as a pastor in Maryland and Nevada 
and as assistant dean of field education and director of admissions at 
Princeton seminary. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 
has elected the Rev. David L. Miller editor of "The Lutheran," the magazine 
of the ELCA. 
    Miller, 46, received an affirmative vote of more than 96 percent.  He 
is currently senior editor of "The Lutheran."  He succeeds the Rev. Edgar 
R. Trexler, who is retiring after 34 years with the magazine.  Miller 
begins his new work Nov. 1. 

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