wfn.org | Mary Ruth Coffman, long-time Upper Room staff member, dies

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 13, 2000  News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{323}

NOTE: A photo is available to accompany this story.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Mary Ruth Coffman, 73, long-time staff member of
the Upper Room and editor of Alive Now! magazine, died July 8 of cancer. 

Coffman had a 17-year tenure as editor of Alive Now! the bi-monthly
devotional magazine of the Upper Room and was a staff member of the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville and predecessor boards for more
than 37 years. She also served as Upper Room's director of production and
scheduling. 

"Mary Ruth saw each issue of Alive Now! as a brand-new endeavor," said
Janice Grana, former publisher of the Upper Room. "She desired to develop
something that was creative and fresh for the readers and truly meaningful
to living Christian life in today's world."  

Because of Coffman's diligence, Grana said the magazine steadily grew and
was often at the forefront of change. A July/August 1981 issue on singing
the Psalms created widespread interest, went into a second printing, and
influenced a revision of the United Methodist Hymnal, Grana said.

Grana said Coffman's tenure at the Upper Room represented a long-term
commitment to a publishing ministry that she loved and a knowledge of the
organization's early history and vision that undergirded all the Upper Room
did. 

A memorial service will be held at West End United Methodist Church in
Nashville, but no date has been announced. She is to be buried in the family
cemetery in Lindsay, Okla.  

Coffman was a member of West End United Methodist Church in Nashville and
sang in its choir for 41 years. The choir will sing at her memorial service.
She requested to be buried in her choir robe.  

Born April 18, 1927, in Edmond, Okla., Coffman received a bachelor's degree
from Southern Illinois University and did graduate work at Scarritt College
in Nashville. She also was a Danforth Graduate Fellow at the University of
Vermont.

"Mary Ruth was one of the saints of the church. She really represented what
we are all about at the Upper Room in her devotion to God and her
Christ-like love for all God's children," said
the Rev. Stephen Bryant, publisher of the Upper Room. He said Coffman was
courageous in speaking her mind and saying what she believed.  "She kept
some of us honest about the radical nature of God's call in our lives," he
said.  

"Mary Ruth embodied what Alive Now! has been about since its inception,
bringing together for tens of thousands the passionate love of Christ and
the issues of this hurting world," Bryant said. 

She joined the Board of Discipleship in 1955 as a secretary in the promotion
and cultivation department following a three-year stint as a short-term
missionary to Brazil. In 1962, she became the director of the Upper Room
Radio-TV Parish. She helped launch and later directed the Upper Room's radio
ministry.  

For many years, the daily meditations from The Upper Room magazine were
heard on hundreds of radio stations throughout the country. "Many people who
had never met Mary Ruth would recognize her voice," said Mary Lou Redding,
managing editor of the popular daily devotional booklet, which continues
today. 

Coffman played a large role in the early growth and eventual success of the
Walk to Emmaus program. The first Upper Room staff member to participate in
the Roman Catholic Cursillo program, Coffman adapted it into an ecumenical
Protestant model that now operates in many countries under the auspices of
the Upper Room.   

Redding described Coffman as a "liberal in conservative's clothing" because
of her championing of individual rights. "She was passionate about justice
and could be a burr in the side of the organization whenever anyone forgot
to be fair. ... She could be infuriating and unrelenting when she thought
Christian principles were being compromised."

Coffman is survived by two sisters, Lois Rickabaugh of Oklahoma City, and
Melba Ballard, Middletown, Ohio, and two brothers, Leon and Leroy Coffman of
Edmond, Okla., and several nieces and nephews.  

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United Methodist News Service
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