People

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2000

* Campus Crusade for Christ President Bill Bright is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer. After medical testing at the Mayo Clinic, Bright, 79, received confirmation he has pulmonary fibrosis of the lung. His wife, Vonette, told of his condition in a letter to Campus Crusade staff on October 27, the Orlando, Florida, ministry announced. Bright has been treated for four years for prostate cancer.

The evangelical layman founded his ministry in 1951 on the UCLA campus and was influenced greatly then by the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He had earlier announced that he would relinquish the Campus Crusade presidency in August 2001, while continuing as chairman of the board. In recent weeks the winner of the 1996 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion has traveled to Amsterdam, San Francisco and Philadelphia, but he plans to slow down soon. "I'm here to do what God still has for me to do on this Earth and whenever that is finished, I am ready to be with him in heaven," Bright told his staff.

* Harry It. Pritchett Jr., eighth dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, has announced his plans to retire on March 1 when he will have served four years as dean. The famous cathedral's dean directly oversees an organization of more than 70 people, including clergy, program staff and administrators. In addition, he is responsible for the Cathedral School, other resident groups, and programs that uphold the cathedral's mission and its prominent role in New York.

* A 350-member United Methodist congregation in St. Marys, Georgia, will receive next year about $60 million bequeathed by a man who had not attended the church for the past two decades, according to the Florida Times-Union. It was known back in July when Warren Bailey, cofounder of a telephone company, died that St. Marys United Methodist would receive nearly half of his company stock. Pastor Derek McAleer said he was afraid that as a result members would donate less to the church's annual budget of $285,000, but they haven't. McAleer told congregants October 29 what the value of the bequest is now expected to be. "How do we remain a Christian church?" he asked, telling the Jacksonville newspaper that he is praying for guidance.

* Gospel music industry pioneer Bob MacKenzie died October 20, a week and a half before he was scheduled to be inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. MacKenzie, 62, of Brentwood, Tennessee, died of apparent heart failure, the association said. He was inducted posthumously at the hall of fame ceremony October 30 in Nashville. A multiple Grammy winner, MacKenzie was creative director of the John T. Benson Publishing Company and produced almost every album released by the company in the 1960s and 1970s, including those by such artists as the Oak Ridge Boys, the Cathedrals and the Imperials.