wfn.org | Stone/Campbell colleges to discuss common legacy

["Wilma Shuffitt"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: June 24, 1998
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

98b-33

     BETHANY, W Va. -- Representatives from 90 higher
education institutions with shared roots in the 19th century
Restoration Movement will gather here Oct. 1 to discuss the
common legacy of movement founder, Alexander Campbell.

     Church members from three separate bodies -- the
Churches of Christ, the independent Christian Churches and the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) -- will join the higher
education leaders for two lectures on Campbell and his philosophy. 

     Bethany College President D. Duane Cummins and Gerald
C. Tiffin will give the presentations. Tiffin, formerly dean of
Pacific Christian College, is now provost at Northwest Christian
College, Eugene, Ore.  Cummins will speak on Campbell's
philosophical principle, "Education of the Total Person." Tiffin
will discuss, "21st Century Concerns and 19th Century Roots."  

     The lectures will mark D. Duane Cummins' 10th
anniversary as president of Bethany College, which Campbell
founded in 1840. Bethany College preserves the Campbell home
and church not far from its campus, along with other historical
sites.

     The event also will commemorate Forrest H. Kirkpatrick, a
West Virginia educator and steel executive. The annual lecture
series is named in his honor. Kirkpatrick died May 31 in Wheeling,
at age 93.

     Kirkpatrick served both higher education -- teaching at
Bethany and four other universities -- and industry. He was vice
president of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, where he
specialized in community and industrial relations.

     "Literally hundreds of colleges, universities and centers of
theological education can name Alexander Campbell and Bethany
College as either the inspiration or a primary influence in their
founding and/or formation," said the Rev. Peter M. Morgan,
Nashville, Tenn. He is president of the Disciples of Christ
Historical Society, a cosponsor of the event.

     Some prominent institutions related to the three streams of
the Campbell movement include Pepperdine University, Malibu,
Calif.; Texas Christian University, Fort Worth; and Hope
International University, Fullerton, Calif.

     The three groups grew out of the Campbell and Barton W.
Stone movements in frontier Virginia and Kentucky early last
century, then split apart over the years. Together, the three groups
represent about 3.6 million U.S. Christians.

                                       -- 30 --

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