Hinson, president of Methodist Confessing Movement, dies after massive stroke
While the world mourned the loss of an estimated 150,000 who died in the December 26 tsunami, evangelicals in the United Methodist Church are mourning the passing of Bill Hinson, who died the same day at age 68

Hinson, longtime pastor of Houston's First United Methodist Church until his retirement in 2001, was one of the founders of the denomination's Confessing Movement, which represents 675,000 conservatives in the church, and was serving as its president. He recently made headlines with his call for an "amicable separation" in the denomination.

Hinson's death comes just days after that of another leading evangelical in the United Methodist Church, Ed Robb. In his 78 years, Robb founded or helped to lead most of the major renewal organizations within Methodism, sitting on the boards of the Confessing Movement, Good News, the Mission Society for United Methodists, and Asbury Theological Seminary, founded A Foundation for Theological Education, and helped to start the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Other important deaths of late are Greek Orthodox leader Anthony Gergiannakis, who led believers in seven Western U.S. states, and New Testament scholar-giant Carsten Thiede, most known for his dating the gospels of Matthew and Mark to a few decades after Jesus' death. His most recent work, to be published in a book he was finishing at the time of his death, identifies the biblical village of Emmaus as the present-day Motza-Kolonia.

More deaths:

• Theologian criticized by Vatican dies | The Rev. Jacques Dupuis, a Belgian theologian whose book on religious plurality exploring salvation through non-Christian faiths was attacked by the Vatican, has died in Rome (Associated Press)