wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Former moderator Ken Hall dies suddenly at 79

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Note #8535 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04466
October 18, 2004

Former moderator Ken Hall dies suddenly at 79

Service set for Saturday in Pennsylvania

By Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) with a
reputation for reconciliation work, died Friday afternoon in a Pennsylvania
hospital after a brief bout with viral pneumonia.

	The Rev. C. Kenneth Hall, 79, died at Butler Memorial Hospital, in
Butler, PA, the city where he ministered for 31 years at the Hill United
Presbyterian Church.

	A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct 23, at the
Hill United Presbyterian Church in Butler. The Rev. Richard Young of Orchard
Park, NY, will officiate. Young is Hall's longtime friend and colleague.

	"Ken Hall was one of the most Christ-centered people God has given me
the privilege to know. He was a tremendous role model to me and to many
others in the church, with a deep commitment to Christ, a passion for
mission, a love of the church and a great sense of humor," said the Rev.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

	"He became moderator soon after reunion and at a time of considerable
unrest in the church ... but his gifts did wonders to bring us together as
one body of Christ. Over the years, I have been privileged to work closely
with Ken as he sought reconciliation in Northern Ireland, prayed and worked
for unity in our own church, and supported people like me and countless
others on our Christian pilgrimage. Thanks be to God for Ken Hall," he said.

	Born Nov. 12, 1924, Hall entered ministry in his early thirties,
after
serving in the Navy in World War II and after leaving a career in chemical
engineering. He received his divinity degree in 1954 from Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary. He was ordained May 24, 1954, by Monongahela
Presbytery, the United Presbyterian Church of North America.

	He served as pastor of the Jefferson United Presbyterian Church in
Jefferson Hills for three years, then moving to Hill United, where he
remained until 1988, when he was elected moderator.

	Since 1991, he served as minister-at-large for the Presbyterian
Church (USA) Foundation, before retiring in 2003. He also served on the Board
of Directors of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the Board of Trustees at
the University of Dubuque.

	Hall was also engaged with the Inter-Church Committee on Northern
Ireland, an unprecedented joint effort of the PC(USA), the Presbyterian
Church in Ireland (PCI), the U. S. Catholic Conference and the Northern
Bishops of the Irish Episcopal Conference that began in 1989. It aimed to
make peace by uniting the voices of the churches there and here.

	"We decided whatever we did we would do together, which pretty much
blew the minds of people in Northern Ireland," said Josiah Beeman, who helped
spearhead the initial efforts to get a working group on Northern Ireland
underway with the PC(USA) in the mid-1980s.

	Hall signed on during his moderatorial year and never left.

	"Northern Ireland was Ken's highest mission commitment from 1988
until the day he died," Beeman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an Oct. 18
interview.

	Among the committees' initiatives was the creation of jobs for youth
as a way of deterring violence and opening opportunities for business
education. One of the highpoints of that work was "The Call for Fair
Employment and Investment" which was highlighted at the White House
Conference on Investment, coordinated by the administration of President Bill
Clinton in 1995.

	The committee developed opportunities for college students in
Northern Ireland to attended church-related colleges in the United States and
sponsored "Rev-tours," where Presbyterian ministers and Catholic priests from
Northern Ireland visited U.S. cities to help dispel myths about the conflict.

	"It is with great sadness that his many friends in the PCI have heard
of the death of Rev. Dr. C. Kenneth Hall. The PCI owes a great debt of
gratitude to him for his selfless and consistently constructive engagement
with the complex issues which have engaged our attention for many years,"
said a statement issued last weekend by three former moderators of the PCI,
the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hutchinson, the Rev. Dr. Godfrey Brown and the Rev. Dr.
John Dunlop.

	It read, "He was a great Presbyterian and a good church leader, with
vision wider than his own denomination and concerns greater than his own
country ... Dr. Hall won the hearts of all who knew him by his gracious
manner, his genuine concern for people, his love for his Master, and the
obvious esteem in which he was held by his colleagues in the churches in the
United States. He was always interested in how things were going in Ireland.

	"He was generous in his encouragement; always keen to be constructive
and helpful."

	Hall is survived by his wife, Rose; one daughter, Carole of Butler;
and one son, Roger of Brooklin, Maine.

	Memorial donations may be made to the C. Kenneth Hall Northern
Ireland Fund, through the Presbyterian Foundation, 200 E. 12th St.,
Jeffersonville, IN 47130, or the Hill United Presbyterian Church, 501 Second
St., Butler 16001.

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