Whether it comes as a stream of ooohs and aaahs in response to projected photos at the Academy Awards or in the pensive, prayerful reading of the necrology report at a presbytery meeting, my eyes inevitably moisten when remembering the faithfully departed.
In 2013 we bid our farewells to too many to list in this column — hundreds have been listed in the About People column in each issue of The Outlook. We’ll re-mention just a few here.
Dale Brubaker, inventor of the drive-in church and pioneer of the Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Association left in his 95th year.
Carol Rose Ikele was one of the first women to be ordained into the pastorate of a Presbyterian Church.
Sara Bernice Moseley, a ruling elder, was the first woman to serve as moderator of the former PCUS.
Gwen Crawley headed the PC(USA)’s international health ministries and later served as interim leader of the Worldwide Ministries department and of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Polity.
Pastor Don Black led several missions organizations and served as the first executive director of the PC(USA)’s General Assembly Council (GAC).
Dan McGill, a professor at the Wharton School, served many years as chair and architect of the pension boards of the UPCUSA and PC(USA).
Alan Thomson, a NYC pastor, also served as a missionary in Iran, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore (which expelled him for protesting the Vietnam War).
Bert Tom, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (San Francisco) also served on the staffs of the former Synod of Golden Gate and San Francisco Presbytery and, as a member of the GAC, shaped the denomination’s strategies for urban ministry, racial reconciliation and the Self-Development of People Program.
Eugene Callender served NYC congregations as well as the city’s Urban League, Housing and Development Administration, and the state Office for the Aging.
Annie Rawlings founded the Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty at Fordham University before becoming executive director of A Partnership of Faith in NYC and a staff member of the city’s Interfaith Center.
Scholars who shaped pastoral leaders for a generation included Diogenes Allen, a Princeton philosopher and theologian; Mary E. McNamara, president of United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities; Beverly Wildung Harrison, professor of ethics at Union Seminary (N.Y.); Grayson Tucker, dean of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary; Paul “Bud” Achtemeier, New Testament professor and John Trotti, librarian, both at Union Presbyterian Seminary (Va.).
In this past year, we entrusted back to God’s care many pastors whose care for their congregations became legendary – among them, K.C. Ptomey of Westminster Church in Nashville; Jack Lancaster of First Church in Houston; Ben F. McAnally Jr. of Tyler, Texas; and Henry Green, of Merced, Calif.
The unexpected death of Henry Green hit home perhaps the hardest for me. Still in the prime years of active ministry, he suffered a heart attack and died immediately while hiking in Yosemite National Park on Nov. 18. We had worked closely on matters of denominational renewal through the past two decades. When I checked on his church’s website for details, I discovered that we already had parted ways, his congregation having been welcomed just three weeks prior into the membership of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. So it has been as other leavers have said to us stayers, “I have no need of you.”
The biggest loss for us at the Outlook came Nov. 30th with the retirement of Patricia Gresham. For 46 years the quality of her work as finance manager, book service manager and countless other tasks has been exceeded only by the heart and soul she has invested into this ministry and its subscribers. Pat, we miss you terribly!
Just as I look forward to great reunions in the next life, I pray that in coming years on this side of heaven we’ll see more grand reunions than partings of the ways. Lord, help us to be at least partial answers to your prayer, “ … that they may be one.”
(Thanks go to Presbyterian News Service for providing many of the details reported here.)
—JHH
