wfn.org | UMCom's Weidman receives Duke Divinity School alumna award

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TITLE:UMCom's Weidman receives Duke Divinity School alumna award

Oct. 12, 1999        News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-21-71B{532}

NOTE: A photograph is available.  

DURHAM, N.C. (UMNS) -- The Rev. Judith L. Weidman, who is on leave as
general secretary of United Methodist Communications, has been named the
1999 Duke Divinity School Distinguished Alumna.

An ordained United Methodist minister who earned her master of divinity from
Duke in 1966, Weidman has worked in church communications and journalism for
34 years. Since 1994, she has directed communications efforts for the 8.4
million-member United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant
denomination in the United States.

Weidman was honored Oct. 11 at an alumni luncheon held during the divinity
school's annual Convocation and Pastors' School.

"Judy Weidman's work in communications represents the kind of transformative
service we seek to teach our students at Duke Divinity School," Dean L.
Gregory Jones said. "Her commitment to the church, learning and service is a
model for us all."

In accepting the award, Weidman said that Duke enabled her to have the
Bible, theology, history and ethics under her belt as she entered the field
of journalism.

"For much of my career, the extremes of right and left have been more
attractive to some elements of the media," she said. "It mattered, I
believe, that I was grounded in the theological mainstream as I made my way
in the field."

She went on to say that "we ignore training in the media in theological
education to our peril."

"The media constitute today's public square," she said. "It's not only where
people get their information, but where values are shaped and transmitted.

"I have scandalized my staff on more than one occasion in suggesting that if
Jesus and Paul and (John) Wesley were alive today, they would be on the
Sunday morning talk shows and 'Nightline' and 'Larry King Live,' " she said.

Weidman has announced that she will retire on June 1. She is on leave of
absence until then for health reasons.

A native of Savanna, Ill., Weidman began her journalism career in 1966 as an
assistant editor for the United Methodist Publishing House's adult
curriculum department. She served as a special assignment reporter for the
Kokomo Tribune from 1968 to 1971, before being named associate editor of the
United Methodist Reporter, an independent national newspaper based in
Dallas. In
1975, Weidman was appointed general secretary for interpretation for the
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Weidman became executive editor of Religion News Service in 1984. She helped
steer the agency from virtual bankruptcy to financial solvency and New York
Times syndication during the ensuing decade, attracting more than $1 million
in foundation grants and funding research on religion reporting and
readership.

Named Communicator of the Year in 1987 by the United Methodist Association
of Communicators, Weidman currently serves on the advisory board of the
Center for Religion and the News Media, a joint program of the Medill School
of Journalism at Northwestern University and Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary. She is the editor of two books, Women in Ministry and Christian
Fellowship, and has served as a media consultant in Japan, Korea, China, the
Philippines and England.

The Distinguished Alumni Award was established in 1973 by the Duke Divinity
School Alumni Association to recognize Duke Divinity School graduates for
remarkable and exemplary service to God, the church and the human community.

Weidman's award was presented by the Rev. Nancy Burgin Rankin, chairwoman of
the nominating committee and superintendent of the Statesville District of
the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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*This story was adapted from a Duke Divinity School press release.

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United Methodist News Service
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