—Urban Family magazine and its sister publication The Reconciler, started in April 1995, have combined to form a new single publication, Reconcilers, which will be supported entirely by donations rather than subscription and advertising income as before. Urban Family, the 35-year-old Jackson, Mississippi-based ministry founded by John Perkins, also has been renamed Reconcilers Fellowship, with a purpose of “inspiring and equipping God’s people for racial healing and community rebuilding.”
—The U.S. Supreme Court in October refused to hear an appeal of a Minnesota lower court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America‘s pension fund investments (ct, May 15, 1995, p. 52). Thomas Basich led a group of pastors upset with the denomination for investing money in socially screened funds.
—After three years of buyout attempts, court battles, and demolitions, Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi, is moving to make way for a casino complex. The mission sold its property for $2.2 million and was awarded $514,000 for land taken by eminent domain (CT, Feb. 5, 1996, p. 106), as well as another $25,000 for dropping its appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Its new property is 10 blocks away from the original site, where it has been located for 74 years.
—Grove City (Pa.) College will end participation in the Federal Stafford and Federal PLUS student loan programs at the end of the 1996-97 academic year. New college president John Moore, 61, says the college will institute a private loan program rather than be subject to federal government oversight and audits. Moore has been director of the International Institute at George Mason University and associate director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
—Many of the 25,000 people who have left the Christian Reformed Church in the past four years are expected to join United Reformed Churches in North America, a secessionist denomination formed in October in Lynwood, Illinois. The ordination of women is a leading factor in the departures.
—Questar Publishers of Sisters, Oregon, in September purchased Vision House Publishing of Gresham, Oregon, and absorbed its titles. Questar president Don Jacobson is the son-in-law of John Van Diest, who founded Vision House two years ago. Questar began in 1987.
—Ken Smitherman is the new president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs-based Association of Christian Schools International (ASCI). asci is the largest Christian school organization in the world, representing more than 3,600 Protestant schools in 71 countries.
—Stephen Freed, 39, is the new president and chief executive officer of International Teams/USA, a 35-year-old evangelical missions agency based in Prospect Heights, Illinois, which has 400 staff serving in 20 countries. Freed has had executive posts with Trans World Radio, Campus Crusade for Christ, and MasterWorks.
—Journalist and author Mark Silk has become the 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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