Around the State: UMHB presents annual Easter pageant

Hundreds of University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students—along with children and grandchildren of UMHB faculty and staff—presented three performances of the university’s 83rd annual Easter pageant on April 13. Evrhett White, a senior marketing major from Portland, Ore., served as director of this year’s pageant. Corrine Donnelly, a junior nursing major from Bel Air, Md., and Dannah Fritschle, a senior transformational development major from Austin, were assistant directors. Seth Brennan, a senior mathematics major from Spring, portrayed Jesus. Taylor Humphrey, a senior elementary education major from Belton, portrayed Mary. Each year, UMHB President Randy O’Rear selects a student to direct the pageant and students to portray the roles of Jesus and Mary. Selection of student actors for those two key roles is based on their strong Christian faith and character. This year’s three performances drew more than 6,000 to campus, and thousands more worldwide viewed via livestream. To view the video, click here. (Editor’s Note: This item was edited online April 14 to correct misspelled names.)

Baylor University announced a $3 million gift from Jim and Sharon Harrod of Horseshoe Bay to establish an endowed faculty chair in Christian thought within the Honors College. The chair is designed to focus on the study of great thinkers who have stood at the intersection of the Christian faith and culture at large. The Jim and Sharon Harrod Endowed Chair of Christian Thought supports the human flourishing, leadership and ethics initiative within Illuminate, the university’s strategic plan, and it will qualify for matching support through the Give Light Campaign’s Illuminate chair matching program. Baylor President Linda Livingstone called the donation “a transformational gift” that fits the university’s Christian mission. “Baylor is committed to an unambiguously Christian approach to higher education, where faculty take inspiration from the great Christian thinkers of our time to lead our students to think more deeply about their world and how their faith informs and shapes their approach to life, to family and to vocation,” Livingstone said. “For Baylor to lead and participate in national and international conversations about this intersection of faith and knowledge, we must recruit nationally renowned faculty and resource them to engage in this compelling research.”

East Texas Baptist University’s chapter of  the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society recently collected 455 cans of food for the Mission Marshall food pantry. The food drive culminated with the “Pie Your Professor” event, where students had the chance to throw a pie at the faculty or staff member who collected the highest number of cans. Six ETBU faculty and staff members volunteered to be “pied” for the cause. Their pictures were placed on boxes in the Ornelas Student Center, and students were encouraged to bring canned food and place it in the box of the faculty or staff they most wanted to see receive a pie in the face. At the end of the collection period, the participants gathered in the Quad for the final reveal of the winner. The top three finishers in the number of cans collected were Antay Parker, assistant professor of nursing, in first place; Reid Adams, assistant athletic director, in second place; and Timothy Pierce, associate professor of Christian ministry, in third place. Other participating faculty and staff were Brian Mayper, ETBU head football coach; Eric Hillman, assistant professor of criminal justice; and Lisa Daniel, assistant professor of psychology.

Howard Payne University will celebrate the grand opening of its Newbury Family Welcome Center on May 5. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled at 2 p.m. Self-guided tours are offered from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The public is invited, and no reservations are required. The nearly 8,000-square-foot facility is the first new construction on the HPU campus in more than 20 years. It will house offices for admissions personnel and provide spaces for meetings and events. The facility is named for the family of Don Newbury, president of the university from 1985 to 1997 and current chancellor. The welcome center is located at the intersection of Austin and Center Avenues on the historic former site of Old Main, the university’s original building, which was destroyed by fire in 1984. “On behalf of the entire Howard Payne University family, I extend an invitation to celebrate with us and get an up-close view of this wonderful new facility,” said HPU President Cory Hines. “The Newbury Family Welcome Center is an exciting, much-needed feature of our campus, and we look forward to May 5 with great anticipation.”

Dallas Baptist University has launched a new academic journal, Ducere est Servire (“To Lead is to Serve”). The journal seeks to engage leadership history, theory and practice from multiple disciplines integrated within a Christian worldview. “As a student of leadership, I have come to realize that one of the greatest cravings in our world today is a hunger for Christian servant leadership,” DBU President Adam C. Wright said. Essay contributions in the inaugural issue written by doctoral alumni, students and faculty of the Gary Cook School of Leadership provide original research on such topics as preaching leadership during the Civil Rights era, the role of forgiveness in the workplace and biblical models for leading in crisis situations. The first issue also includes an interview with Chancellor Gary Cook, who served as DBU president 28 years. Click here to view a digital copy of the journal.

Anniversary

45th for Korean Baptist Church in Wichita Falls. Jong Choi is pastor.

Retirement

Roger Jackson as director of Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment, effective May 1. He began working at the camp as a part-time summer staff employee in 1969, and he has served Mount Lebanon in a full-time capacity more than four decades. After 24 years as assistant director at Mount Lebanon, he was named director in 2006. He and his wife Jana will be recognized at a retirement dinner in the camp’s newly renamed Roger L. Jackson Dining Hall on April 24. Guests are invited to gather and visit at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. For more information or to make a reservation, click here.

Song Pak after 33 years as pastor of Korean Baptist Church in Wichita Falls and 36 years in the gospel ministry.