wfn.org | AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR SEPT. 25, 1996

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American Baptist News Service_____________________
Office of Communication / American Baptist Churches USA
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Richard W. Schramm, Director (E-mail:
RICH_SCHRAMM.PARTI@ECUNET.ORG)

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________

     
September 25, 1996

WOODBURY NAMED NEXT EXECUTIVE MINISTER
OF AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE

     VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABNS)--Dr. Clayton R. Woodbury,
executive minister of the Pittsburgh Baptist
Association, has been named the next executive minister
of the American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and
Delaware.

     Woodbury, who was elected Sept. 21 by the Region
Board, will begin his new duties Jan. 1, 1997.  The
decision was announced today by ABCOPAD President Myra
Goss.  Woodbury had been recommended to the
Board unanimously by a region search committee.

     Robert Allen, former treasurer/associate general
secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, has been
serving as interim executive minister since the
retirement of Dr. Richard Rusbuldt in September 1995.

     Woodbury has served since 1989 as executive minister
of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association, where he
previously had been associate executive minister.  Since
1991 he has been an instructor at the Center for Urban
Biblical Ministry.

     Ordained in 1965, Woodbury has held pastorates at
First Baptist Church, Bangor, Me. (1965-1985), and
First Baptist Church, North Oxford, Mass. (1965-1969). 
He also has been an adjunct faculty member at New
York Theological Seminary (1973-1986) and director of
Theological Education for Laity at Bangor Theological
Seminary (1981-1986).

     Woodbury has held numerous positions on committees
and other bodies of American Baptist Churches
USA, including many as a representative of the Regional
Executive Ministers Council.

     He holds degrees from Trinity College (B.S.),
Andover Newton Theological School (B.D.) and New
York Theological Seminary (S.T.M., D.Min.). 

     His wife, Nancy, is assistant executive director of
Fair Oaks of Pittsburgh, a retirement community. 
They are members of North Hills Community Baptist Church
in Pittsburgh.

     In announcing Woodbury's appointment in a letter
sent today to ABCOPAD churches, Goss noted, "I am
certain that you will be encouraged by Dr. Woodbury's
sincere dedication to Jesus Christ and the
Church...please
keep Dr. Woodbury in your prayers, asking both God's
blessing and leading as he assumes this new office."

     The American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and
Delaware, one of 34 regions within American
Baptist Churches USA, includes approximately 280 churches
and 42,000 resident members.

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