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[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9024 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05616
Nov. 15, 2005

Notes about people

by Jerry L. Van Marter

	Bishop Vicken Aykazian, a Turkish-born priest who represents the
eastern prelacy of the Armenian Church of America in Washington, DC, became
president-elect of the National Council of Churches USA during the council's
annual General Assembly last week.

	Aykazian will assume office in January, when the current
president-elect, the Rev. Michael E. Livingston, assumes the presidency,
succeeding Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr. The president-elect assumes the NCC
presidency after serving a two-year term.

	Aykazian, who was ordained a bishop in 1992, earned two Ph.Ds from
Catholic University. The Armenian church's ecumenical officer, he also is
active in the World Council of Churches. He is fluent in four languages -
English, Armenian, French and Turkish.

# # #

	The Rev. Thomas K. Tewell has resigned as pastor of Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian Church in New York City. 

	He had been on administrative leave from the pastorate since August,
when allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct with a female church member
and Tewell requested the leave. Earlier this fall, he resigned as chair of
the board of trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary.

	Tewell has been pastor of the 3,500-member Fifth Avenue church since
1994. Before that he was pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, a
5,000-member congregation in Houston.

# # #

	The Rev. Thomas W. Currie Jr., who through most of his career was a
Presbyterian pastor in Grace Presbytery, died on Nov. 7 at age 90.

	Currie, a graduate of the University of Texas and Union Theological
Seminary in New York, earned advanced degrees from Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary/Presbyterian School of
Christian Education in Virginia. A prolific author, his books include The
Gospel in Sermon and Symbol and Our Cities for Christ.

	Currie's first love was always pastoral ministry, to which he devoted
60 years of his 64-year career. Beginning in 1941, he served pastorates in
Eliasville, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston - all in Texas - before retiring in
1983. He then served a temporary pastorate in New Zealand, then returned to
Texas and interim and supply pastorates in Ferris, Fort Worth, Italy,
Milford, Cumby and Dallas.

	Currie's first wife, Alison, died in 1998 after 58 years of marriage.
He is survived by his second wife, Eleanor. A memorial service was held on
Nov. 10 at NorthPark Presbyterian Church in Dallas.

# # #

	Frances Ellen Shannon Jung, who served as a medical missionary in the
Congo with her husband, Jean Baptiste Jung, from 1952 to 1964, died at her
home in Mobile, AL, on Oct. 30. She was 94.

	Jung, a native of Macon, MS, served with her husband in a dental
clinic in the Congo. She is survived by two sons, two granddaughters, three
grandsons, two great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter. 

	A memorial service was held on Nov. 3 at Springhill Presbyterian
Church in Mobile.

# # #

	Sandy Cole Marks, another Congo missionary, who served from 1948 to
1963 and again in 1986 and 1987, died on Nov. 8, two days short of his 95th
birthday.		
	A native of Apex, NC, Marks attended Davidson (NC) College, then
graduated from Atlanta Southern Dental College in Atlanta. In 1948, he and
his wife Katherine ("Kitty"), a registered nurse, joined the American
Presbyterian Congo Mission.

	While in the Congo, Marks was instrumental in starting a dental
school for Congolese dental nurses. Shortly after the nation gained its
independence, the Markses were evacuated to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
Marks stayed on for three additional years as the mission's legal
representative. In 1963 he returned to the United States, finished
post-graduate work and taught dentistry at Howard University and the
University of North Carolina until his retirement in 1976.

	In retirement, he remained active in Africa mission work through the
Medical Benevolence Foundation and helped establish a post-graduate clinic
for dental trainees in Zaire (formerly and now the Congo).

	A graveside service was held on Nov. 12 in Wilmington, NC.
      
# # #

	Jeanne Voorhees Bellerjeau, 82, a Presbyterian missionary in Thailand
for more than 40 years, died on Nov. 13.
 
	Bellerjeau, a native of Trenton, NJ, was a member of First
Presbyterian Church of Haddon Heights, NJ, all her life. A graduate of
Maryville (TN) College and Princeton Theological Seminary, she worked in
mission service with women of the Church of Christ in Thailand, in leadership
development.

	Bellerjeau is survived in this country by a sister and several nieces
and nephews, and in Thailand by an adopted daughter, son-in-law and grandson
in Chiangmai.

	A memorial service is scheduled for Nov. 20 at First Church, Haddon
Heights.

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