* Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry on July 10 sentenced former Episcopal Church treasurer Ellen F. Cooke to five years in prison. In January, Cooke pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the denomination and to evading income tax on more than $310,000 that she had stolen. Cooke had blamed the theft on job stress (CT, June 19, 1995, p. 46), a defense Barry called “spurious.”
* The general assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) voted in June to suspend ties with the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) because of the CRC’s 1995 vote to allow regional classes to ordain women. The OPC urged the CRC to “repent” and said “the ordination and/or installation of women to the office of elder, minister, or evangelist is contrary to the Scriptures.”
* The Walt Disney Company, under siege by conservative Christians for extending health benefits to homosexual partners and for distributing graphic film content (CT, July 15, 1996, p. 66), has named Georgetown University president Leo O’Donovan to its board. “As a Jesuit priest, a theologian, an educator, and university president, I hope I can contribute to Disney’s ongoing interest in providing family-oriented entertainment and recreation,” said O’Donovan, 62.
* The Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network (CAN) has plans to liquidate its assets under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Since its founding in 1974, can has been the target of numerous lawsuits from aberrant religious groups such as the Unification Church and Church of Scientology over its deprogramming methods. It has been in financial straits since a September 1995 court ruling involving a man kidnapped by deprogrammers who sought to break his ties with a United Pentecostal Church congregation (CT, Nov. 13, 1995, p. 84).
* In June, the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) ended the two-year probation of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth seven months early. ATS placed the seminary on probation after the firing of president Russell Dilday (CT, April 4, 1994, p. 85).
* Following fiscal losses, Nashville-based Thomas Nelson has ceased publication of “GrandParenting” magazine and reduced the frequency of “Aspire” to bimonthly from monthly. Seven employees lost jobs in the cutbacks. The publishing giant is looking for a buyer for “Aspire.”
* World Relief Canada (WRC) has eliminated the position of president Robert Henry along with positions of eight other staff members in an effort to stay viable. WRC’s annual budget has shrunk by more than $3 million in the past four years, in large part due to a reduction in government grants. Seven employees remain as a board-appointed executive committee oversees management of the organization.
* C. M. Ward, host of the weekly Assemblies of God radio broadcast Revivaltime from 1953 to 1978, died July 12 at age 87 in Modesto, California.
* Paul Kim, formerly with Louisiana State University the past 11 years, has been named dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Carver School of Church Social Work in Louisville, Kentucky, for the 1996-97 year. In addition, the Carver School is expected to transfer to Campbellsville University in Kentucky.
* Roberta Hestenes, who in 1987 became the first woman to head an American evangelical liberal arts college, has resigned as president of Eastern College in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania, effective October 15. Hestenes, an ordained Presbyterian Church U.S.A. minister, will become senior pastor of the 2,200-member Solano Beach (Calif.) Presbyterian Church.
* Garry E. Hill, 46, is the new chief executive officer of the New York-based Faith & Values Channel, replacing Nelson Price, who resigned after six years. Hill had been executive vice president and general manager of Z Music Television.
* Journalist and author Mark Silk began his role this month as founding director of the new Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The center’s mission includes the advancement of understanding the roles that religious movements play, the exploration of challenges posed by religious pluralism, and the examination of the influence of religion on culture.
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