ResigningClive Calver as president of World Relief Corporation, effective September 30. Calver and his wife, Ruth, will then serve as ministers-at-large until March 31, 2005. Calver has been president of World Relief for seven years. Calver said he has a growing desire to move toward a position in local church ministry.
Re-elected Gerald Kieschnick, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, to a second three-year term during the 2.6 million-member denomination’s 62nd convention in St. Louis during July. Kieschnick, 61, was elected on the first ballot with 52.8 percent of the vote. Opponents have sought to remove Kieschnick ever since he allowed Atlantic District president David Benke to pray at an interreligious event commemorating 9/11.
Appointed Jack Hayford, author and former pastor of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, to head the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Hayford succeeds Paul Risser, who resigned in March after the Pentecostal denomination of 4 million members lost $15 million in an investment scam. Risser was not accused of wrongdoing.
Died Carli Jelenszky, 49, on July 2 in Panama City of cancer. Jelenszky, a jeweler, actively evangelized friends and elite business associates through Bible studies. His story was told in ct, February 2004, p. 70.
Died Carl McMindes, 67, former president of Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant Ministries), on July 12 of acute leukemia, in Kansas City. McMindes, who headed the agency for 11 years, stepped down in 2002.
Died Abdah Johnson (Chip) Conyers, one of George W. Truett Theological Seminary’s first faculty members, on July 18 in Houston of cancer. Conyers was 60.
Died William Harold Mare, 85, in an auto accident in Jordan on June 21. Mare, a longtime professor of archaeology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, had just returned to Jordan to continue work at a dig in Abila of the Decapolis.
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Related Elsewhere:
Before his resignation, Clive Calver discussed World Relief’s future in a Q&A with Christianity Today.
Calver’s announcement of his resignation is available from the World Relief website, as well as a press release.
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has the results of Gerald Kieschnick’s re-election.
The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel has a press release about Jack W. Hayford’s selection as president.
Christianity Today profiled Carli Jelenszky in our February issue.
Baylor has more information on the death of Abdah Johnson (Chip) Conyers.
Chesapeake Presbytery has more information on the death of William Harold Mare.
