2004 Archives
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Church guides visitors through interactive journey to Bethlehem_122004
Posted: 12/17/04
Jim Vickroy, a member of Western Oaks Baptist Church of Springfield, Ill., portrays Zechariah in the church's interactive Christmas drama. Church guides visitors through
interactive journey to BethlehemBy Michael Leathers
Associated Baptist Press
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (ABP)–With just a portable heater as defense against the cool night, Kendra Jackson waits for the next group of Christmas celebrants to arrive. The 30-something mother of two daughters is portraying Anna in the interactive Christmas drama produced by Western Oaks Baptist Church.
12/17/2004 - By John Rutledge
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Baptist Briefs_122004
Posted: 12/17/04
Baptist Briefs
Mercer president announces retirement plans. Kirby Godsey, Mercer University's longest-serving president, announced he will retire in 18 months, and trustees expect to start the search for his successor as early as spring. At a recent trustee meeting, Godsey, 68, revealed his plans to step down June 30, 2006. Mercer trustee and Augusta attorney David Hudson will head the search committee, which will begin work in the spring. Godsey went to work for the historically Baptist university in 1977 as executive vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Previously he was vice president and dean of the college at Averett College in Danville, Va. When Godsey became president in 1979, Mercer had an enrollment of 3,800 students, an endowment of $16.5 million and a budget of $21.3 million. It grew under his leadership to become Georgia's second-largest private university, with an enrollment of 7,300 students, an endowment of more than $176 million, a budget of $173.8 million and 665 faculty members.
BGCT president to address CBF assembly. Baptist General Convention of Texas President Albert Reyes has been added to the list of keynote speakers at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly, June 29-July 2 at Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine. Reyes, who also is president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, will speak during the Thursday evening session. Online registration and hotel reservations for the general assembly can be made at the Fellowship's website, www.thefellowship.info.
Baptist chaplain honored. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains recently presented its Legion of Honor award to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain Keith Ethridge. Ethridge is acting deputy director for the National Chaplains Center for the Department of Veterans Affairs. A former U.S. Navy chaplain, Ethridge has been a clinical pastoral education supervisor 17 years. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, a national nonprofit organization established to encourage cooperation and promote unity without uniformity, annually recognizes individuals from all walks of life who render selfless service. Dedicated by President Truman in 1951, the chapel was inspired by the courageous acts of four U.S. Army chaplains serving aboard the U.S. troop carrier Dorchester, which was sunk by a torpedo off the coast of Greenland in 1943. The chaplains–Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Jewish and Methodist–went down with the ship after surrendering their own lifejackets to servicemen aboard.
12/17/2004 - By John Rutledge
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ANOTHER VIEW: There’ll always be a Christmas_122004
Posted: 12/17/04
ANOTHER VIEW:
There'll always be a ChristmasAs one grows older, the valuables of life become more treasured. Friendships are rooted more deeply in the soil of human need. Homes are marked within and without with meaningful “hand-me-downs,” pictures of the children and grandchildren, reminders of visits by joy-bringers, gracious serendipities that have added so much to the journey.
We would be hard-pressed to place pricetags on the presence of special individuals, who at trying times have felt voicemail was hardly sufficient. They knew that we needed broad shoulders to lean upon and how to adjust in the crowded world we live in.
BO Baker There have been the constant pressures to downgrade our moral values; plus a mindset equipped to deal with the gray climate brought upon us by the terrorist who cannot have the priceless gift of peace, nor properly evaluate hope for international brothering.
12/17/2004 - By John Rutledge
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