wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Notes about people

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>This story available online:
>http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09138

>Notes about people

>by Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

On Feb. 23, Westminster John Knox Press launched a monthly
podcast radio show, WJK Radio with Dan and Jana
[http://wjkradio.wjkbooks.com]. The podcast, with new shows
on the last Monday of each month, will feature author
interviews and current news and views from the religious
book world.

Co-hosts are Dan Braden, managing editor with WJC ― an
imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation ― and
Jana Riess, the press's newest acquisitions editor and
former religious book review editor for Publishers Weekly

"Our guests are esteemed scholars, theologians,
clergypersons, and authors who bring eloquent expression to
fresh ideas that reinvigorate the larger discourse on
values and meaningful human life," Braden says. "Each
episode showcases contemporary viewpoints about the Bible,
ethics, geopolitical crises, social justice, popular
culture, church, religious diversity, controversial
religious issues, and living life with hope and joy in an
uncertain world."

Riess adds: "This is a very exciting time to be in religion
publishing. At WJK Radio we get to sit down with top-notch
authors to get their perspectives on their own work and
also the issues of the day."

The first show includes a conversation with Rufus Burrow
Jr. on Martin Luther King Jr. and the history of race
relations in America. Burrow is the author of Martin Luther
King Jr. for Armchair Theologians, slated for release in
May. Other upcoming guests include New Testament scholar
Dr. Craig Evans and esteemed preachers Barbara Brown Taylor
and David Bartlett.

># # #

J. William "Bill" Straughan, Jr. has been named
vice-president for development at Montreat Conference
Center. Straughan, who headed the development office from
2001 until his retirement in 2006, has continued to play an
active role at the conference center as executive director
and then chair of the Montreat Conference Center
Development Foundation until 2007. Most recently, he has
served as interim vice-president for development.

Straughan, a Presbyterian elder, has agreed to a two-year
tenure, during which time he will focus on strengthening
individual and church support for the conference center. He
will also direct the conference center in preparation for
the launch of a long-awaited capital improvements campaign.

Before coming to Montreat, Straughan successfully completed
a $900 million fundraising campaign at Ducks Unlimited,
Inc. Prior to that, he was president of World Book
Encyclopedia, Inc.; was assistant executive
director/director for the American Bar Association Fund for
Justice and Education; and was vice-president for
development and associate general counsel at Wake Forest
University.

># # #

The Rev. Jill Crainshaw, academic dean and associate
professor of ministry studies at Wake Forest University's
Scholl of Divinity, has been elected vice-president of the
North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), putting her in
line to be president of the organization in 2010. She will
be the first Presbyterian to lead NAAL since Alan Barthel
in 1999.  Crainshaw is a graduate of Wake Forest and
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She earned her
Ph.D. in homiletics and liturgical theology from Union
Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian
Education in Richmond, VA, and was ordained to ministry in
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1987.

Prior to joining academia, Crainshaw served as a pastor and
hospice and retirement community chaplain in Virginia.

># # #

South Korean Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, a campaigner
for human rights and democracy when his country was ruled
by the military four decades ago, died Feb. 16 at age 86.

"In the days of military dictatorship, he raised a voice of
protest. He kept soldiers out of [Seoul's] Myongdong
Cathedral, where students were holed up during their
pro-democracy resistance," the Korea Herald wrote. "Yet, he
also knew how to make those in power listen to him and how
best to bring peace to the opposing sides."

Kim, born into a poor Roman Catholic family in Daegu in
1922, was ordained a priest in 1951 during the Korean War
and made a bishop in 1966, becoming archbishop of Seoul in
1968. The following year he was made Korea's first cardinal
and at that time the world's youngest.

Through Kim's efforts, a religious organization was set up
in 1995 to work for the reunification of the two Koreas.

The Seoul archdiocese scheduled a funeral Mass for Kim on
Feb. 20.

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