wfn.org | Notes about People

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17-March-1998 
98093 
 
    Notes about People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    The Rev. Maurice McCrackin, a civil rights and peace activist who was 
arrested dozens of times and defrocked by Cincinnati Presbytery, though 
reinstated 25 years later, died Dec. 30 at the age of 92. 
    Born in Storms, Ohio, in 1905, McCrackin grew up in Illinois.  He was 
ordained by Chicago Presbytery and served churches in Illinois and Indiana 
before arriving in Cincinnati in 1945.  Within two years, he began 
organizing pickets in front of segregated institutions in Cincinnati and in 
1949 publicly announced he was withholding 80 percent of his income tax to 
protest the use of tax dollars to fund military activities. 
    McCrackin continued his peace and civil rights work, despite numerous 
arrests, and in 1959 was sentenced to six months in federal prison for 
refusing to pay taxes.  Three years later, Cincinnati Presbytery suspended 
McCrackin's ordination.  He then started the independent Community Church 
of Cincinnati.  At the 1987 General Assembly in Biloxi, Miss., McCrackin 
was unanimously reinstated to ordained ministry in the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.). 
    In 1988 he retired from active ministry but not from activism.  At the 
age of 83 McCrackin was arrested at the U.S. Department of Energy's uranium 
processing center in Cincinnati, and at age 85 he was arrested in 
Washington after he scaled the White House fence and dumped red dye into a 
fountain to symbolize blood spilled during the Gulf War. 
    "There are no innocent bystanders," McCrackin explained.  "If we are a 
bystander, we're not innocent." 
 
                           # # # 
 
    The Rev. Judy Record Fletcher has been named executive for the Synod of 
the Sun.  She began work in her new position March 1. 
    Fletcher, a native of east Texas, is a 1969 graduate of Austin 
Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  She is the second woman to serve as the 
synod's executive.  Fletcher most recently was co-pastor, with her husband, 
J. David Fletcher, of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Okla.  She 
previously served pastorates in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and North 
Carolina. 
 
                            # # # 
 
    The Congregational Ministries Division (CMD) in Louisville has 
announced the appointment of Stephany Darlene Graham as associate for 
African-American leadership training and resource development, a new 
position that was approved by the 209th (1997) General Assembly and 
assigned to CMD's Christian Education Program Area.  Graham began her new 
duties March 9. 
    Graham was formerly director of youth and young adult ministries at 
Cherry Hill Community Presbyterian Church and adult educator for the 
H.E.A.L. (Health, Education, Advocacy, Life) program at the Madison Avenue 
Presbyterian Church, both in Baltimore, Md.  She is a 1993 graduate of 
Princeton Theological Seminary. 

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