wfn.org | [UCC NEWS] UCC pastor's public battle with cancer ends

[guessb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
United Church News
The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, news director
217/736-2177, guessb@ucc.org

May 16, 2005

'One of many journeys' -- UCC pastor's public battle with cancer comes
to
an end

The Rev. Donel McClellan, a UCC minister who maintained a personal,
poignant online diary ? "Bright Wings" ? chronicling his battle with
cancer, died on May 13. He was 67.

Read his blog at http://www.hellbox.org/donel/

"Bright Wings is the record of a journey, one of many undertaken in a
lifetime," wrote McClellan, pastor emeritus of First Congregational UCC in
Bellingham, Wash., describing the purpose of his blog. What began as a
medium to share information about the status of his health with friends and
family soon became an online spiritual journal read by thousands, even
by
many who had never met him personally.

At 1:58 p.m. on the day of his death, McClellan's final post was released.
It was entitled "The pastor's last sermon."

"Who is to say to where I have gone when I depart this breathing physical
body?" McClellan wrote. "'I'm gone' suffices ? and contains within its
finality the hope of another meeting ? ."

McClellan was one of the early founders of Ecunet, one of the first
ventures into online communication by religious groups more than 25 years
ago.

Andy Lang, the UCC's former web manager, described McClellan as an internet
"pioneer."

"It goes back to long before the 'Internet' when a small, and visionary,
subculture of ecumenical pastors created a new means of communication for
the church," Lang said via email. "They were the pioneers, and I think
online communication in the UCC owes a huge debt to them, and especially to
Donel."

A March 27 story in The Bellingham Herald about McClellan's 'bold
testament' can be read here:
http://news.bellinghamherald.com/permanent/sundayspecials/236894.shtml