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Holy Week resources and reflections

Lewis Wilkins dies at age 71

LOUISVILLE -- Lewis Langley Wilkins, a former middle governing body executive, pastor and scholar who was heavily involved in the movement that led to Presbyterian
reunion, died Jan. 31 of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.

Wilkins was born in Kerrville, Texas, where he graduated from
Presbyterian-related Schreiner University. He later earned degrees from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

Wilkins also engaged in doctoral study in Old Testament at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in church administration at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

LOUISVILLE — Lewis Langley Wilkins, a former middle governing body executive, pastor and scholar who was heavily involved in the movement that led to Presbyterian
reunion, died Jan. 31 of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.

Wilkins was born in Kerrville, Texas, where he graduated from
Presbyterian-related Schreiner University. He later earned degrees from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

Wilkins also engaged in doctoral study in Old Testament at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in church administration at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

He was immersed in the union presbytery movement, the key institutional form that led to Presbyterian Union in 1983.

“Lew Wilkins was one of the knights-errant of the Presbyterian Church,” said Houston Hodges, a former editor of Monday Morning magazine and a longtime
friend of Wilkins. “Valiant for truth, courageous and absolutely brilliant, he was theoretician and practitioner of the church as it ought to be. All of that was deceptively concealed beneath the slowest Texas drawl in history.

Over the years Wilkins served the former Presbyterian Church in the United States and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in a variety of ministerial positions, ranging
from the local church to denominational and interdenominational organizations in the United States and abroad.

With the PC(US) Wilkins worked for the General Assembly’s Board of Christian Education and was an associate executive in two synods: Mid-South in the PC(US) and Lincoln Trails in the PC(USA). In the Synod of the Mid-South he spearheaded the establishment of resource libraries in presbytery offices, an idea that soon spread to other middle governing bodies across the country.

He was executive presbyter of Palo Duro Presbytery based in Lubbock,  Texas, and later oversaw a merger that created the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks in Colorado.

For several years Wilkins served on behalf of the Presbyterian Church on the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), a church unity effort in the United States that
eventually became the Churches Uniting in Christ. He also served on the Task Force on the Theology and Practice of Ordination.

Wilkins had an article in a section of the Presbyterian Presence series, and also wrote a monograph on “The American Presbytery in the Twentieth Century” that was
considered by many to be a definitive piece of work for those in middle governing body service.

Wilkins finished his pre-retirement career as pastor of First Church in Lovington, N.M. He was an honorably retired member of the PC(USA)’s Sierra Blanca
Presbytery and an associate member of Shepherd King Lutheran  Church in Lubbock.

After retiring to Lubbock, Wilkins and his wife, Judith, ran the Plains Institute, a consulting service specializing in clergy coaching, vocational assessment and a variety of church resources.

Shannon Webster, a longtime friend and former colleague of Wilkins, described the native Texan as a “brilliant” man and a “silver-dollar helluva scholar.” In addition, he said, Wilkins was a fine pastor and a teacher by natural inclination who could incisively apply Scripture to a complex issue as easily as he could cut a Texas two-step.

“He loved the church with a passion, he loved his friends, he loved music and he loved Texas,” said Webster, who is head of staff at First Church in Birmingham,
Ala. “He was as natural in boots and cowboy hat out on the range as he was in alb and stole in the pulpit.” Webster and Wilkins taught a course together for years at Ghost Ranch Conference Center in New Mexico called “Theology and Country Music.”

Webster said Wilkins’ death brought to mind a song by cowboy folk singer Ian Tyson: “Rock with me Jesus, help me pull that heavy load. Don’t let her slip, don’t let her slide. You’ll answer all our questions further down that muddy road. When old cowboys cross the Great Divide.”

Wilkins is survived by his wife, Judith, and four children: Alisa Cortez and her husband, Franklin of Kansas City, Mo.; Katrina Jansky and her husband, Ryan, of Pflugerville, Texas; Timothy and his wife, Christine Wilkins of New York City;
and Tucker McDonald of Washington, D.C.; one brother, John Wilkins of Knoxville, Tenn., and two grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life was to be held Feb. 2 at Shepherd King Lutheran Church in Lubbock. Memorials may be made to the Shepherd King church, or to Neighborhood House, 1318 Broadway, and Lubbock, TX 79401.

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