wfn.org | Notes about People

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

4-June-1997 
97235 
 
                        Notes about People 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
     Vivian Johnson, associate director for the Stewardship Program Area of 
the Congregational Ministries Division, has submitted her resignation, 
effective January 31, 1998.  She and her husband, David, will reside in 
Huntsville, Ala., where David is a pastor.  
 
                              # # #  
 
     The National Ministries Division has announced the appointment of the 
Rev. Rosalie J. Potter as associate director for evangelism and church 
development. 
     Potter comes to Louisville from the Presbytery of Central Florida, 
where she was an associate executive presbyter with responsibility for 
evangelism and revitalization, the spiritual life of pastors and churches, 
issues of justice and mission and stewardship and communication. 
     She begins her new work July 21, 1997, succeeding the Rev. Frank 
Beattie, who retired last fall. 
 
                              # # # 
 
     Veteran Presbyterian journalist John D. Sniffen has been named 
associate editor for "The Presbyterian Outlook."  In the newly created 
position, Sniffen will have special responsibility for news gathering, 
marketing and fund-raising.  He will be introduced at the "Presbyterian 
Outlook" Dinner during the General Assembly in Syracuse and will begin work 
officially on July 7. 
     Sniffen was most recently director of communication for the Synod of 
the Mid-Atlantic from 1989 through 1996.  Prior to that he served as 
director of communication for Mo-Ranch Conference Center in Texas, as 
assistant director of college information for Austin College and as a 
reporter and photographer for several newspapers in Texas. 
     "The Presbyterian Outlook" is based in Richmond, Va. 
 
                              # # # 
 
     The Rev. Dean M. Kelley, 70, a United Methodist minister widely 
recognized for his pre-eminence as a religious liberty expert, died May 11 
at his West Swanzey, N.H., home following a 15-month battle against cancer. 
     For more than 30 years as executive for religious liberty on the staff 
of the National Council of Churches, Kelley defended the religious freedom 
of groups, no matter how mainline or controversial, and vehemently opposed 
"deprogramming."  During his tenure, he defended the religious rights of 
groups as diverse as the Unification Church, Taos Pueblo Indians, Church of 
Scientology, Older Order Amish, Christian Scientists, Roman Catholics, 
Jews, Muslims and mainline Protestants.  He consistently held the 
conviction that the threat to the religious freedom of anyone was a threat 
to everyone. 
 
                              # # # 
 
     Larry L. Rasmussen, professor of social ethics at Union Theological 
Seminary in New York City, has won the 1997 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in 
Religion, presented jointly by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary 
and the University of Louisville.  The award includes a $150,000 prize. 
     Rasmussen won the coveted award for his book "Earth Community, Earth 
Ethics," in which he shows how the current environmental predicament in the 
world underscores a variety of crises afflicting industrial society in 
economics, politics, gender and reproductive relationships and debates 
about the meaning of life. 
     With humanity's future no longer guaranteed by nature, according to 
Rasmussen, he outlines the different perspectives that scientists and 
economists have on sustainability and development. 
 
                              # # # 
 
     The Rev. Ruth Duba, former associate director of the Advisory 
Committee on Social Witness Policy, was found dead in her Richmond, Calif., 
apartment June 1.  Police estimated that she had been dead for several 
days.  An autopsy has been done to determine the cause of death.  She had 
been receiving disability benefits from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
for chronic back problems.  
     Duba, a graduate of San Francisco Theologicial Seminary, participated 
in the development of some of the Advisory Committee's most important 
recent work, including major General Assembly policy papers on 
environmental justice and Christian vocation and work. 

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