Ohio native George Papageorgiou, Metropolitan Spyridon of Italy, became head of the newly created Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on July 29. He succeeds Archbishop Iakovos, who resigned, effective on his eighty-fifth birthday, as leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America for 37 years. Spyridon, 51, will oversee the 1.9 million-member church in the United States. New jurisdictions have also been established in Toronto, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.
Roberta Hestenes, who in 1987 became the first woman to head a U.S. evangelical liberal arts college, has resigned as president of Eastern College in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania, effective October 15. Hestenes, 57, an ordained Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister, will become senior pastor of the 2,200-member Solana Beach (Calif.) Presbyterian Church.
Garry E. Hill, 46, is the new chief executive officer of the New York-based Faith & Values Channel (F&V), replacing Nelson Price, who resigned after six years. Hill had been executive vice president and general manager of Z Music Television. In addition, F&V, formerly known as VISN, will change its name September 29 to Odyssey. Hill indicated the explicit F&V designation deterred some advertisers, while Odyssey will be “attractive to the broadest audience possible.”
EMI Christian Music Group has purchased ForeFront Communications Group, contemporary Christian music’s top independent label, which includes artists dc Talk. It is EMI’s third recent Christian music buyout, following Sparrow Corporation in 1992 and Star Song Communications in 1994.
Dallas evangelist W. V. Grant, Jr., 50, was sentenced in federal court July 22 to 16 months in prison and fined $30,000 for evading taxes on $375,842 in income in 1990. Grant was one of three televangelists targeted in a 1991 exposé abc Television’s PrimeTime Live.
Paul F. Bubna, 63, began a three-year term as president of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA). Bubna succeeds 62-year-old David L. Rambo, who served nine years at the C&MA helm. Rambo, who also has been president and chair of the National Association of Evangelicals, is the new president of Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York-succeeding Bubna.
Joseph Aldrich, president of Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, since 1978, is stepping down because of an ongoing struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Aldrich will continue to be involved with the schools in prayer summits, teaching, and pastoral contacts.
Richard R. Melick, Jr., 51, has resigned as president of Criswell College in Dallas because his end-times beliefs differ from those of 86-year-old chancellor and eponym W. A. Criswell. Melick, head of the college for four years, says he does not agree with Criswell’s view of the tribulation that Christians will be “raptured” before the second coming of Christ.
Author Eugenia Price, who wrote, produced, and directed the Chicago-based Unshackled! radio program for its first six years beginning in 1950, died May 28 at age 79.
CT columnist Philip Yancey won the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Gold Medallion Book of the Year award in July for The Jesus I Never Knew (Zondervan).
Rick Hicks, 46, has become president of Operation Mobilization (OM) USA after 12 years with the Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, California. The Tyrone, Georgia-OM has missionaries in 80 countries.
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