Baptist Briefs
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Pressler ends IMB term. Paul Pressler of Houston, chief architect of the conservative movement that gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention beginning in 1979, concluded his second term of service as a trustee of the SBC's International Mission Board last week. Pressler told fellow trustees this would be the "last time" he would serve on an SBC trustee board, according to a Baptist Press report. Before serving eight years as an IMB trustee, Pressler served seven years on the SBC Executive Committee. Messengers to next month's SBC annual meeting will be asked to elect him to a five-year term as an SBC representative to the Baptist World Alliance.
___ IMB officers elected. Tim McCoy of Macon, Ga., is the new chairman of International Mission Board trustees. Bob Claytor of South Carolina was elected first vice chairman, Steve McKown of Arizona was elected second vice chairman and Diane Reeder of Louisiana was named recording secretary.
___ New BP head named. Wilburn Keith Hall II, 40, has been nominated as vice president for convention news of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Hall, a retired lieutenant commander with the U.S. Navy, will succeed Herb Hollinger, who retires June 30 as director of Baptist Press. A 1982 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he earned a master of education degree from Harvard University and a master of arts degree from George Washington University. He currently is enrolled in doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University.
___ Mexico missions contacts sought. Gerald Hale, International Mission Board coordinator for work in northern Mexico, is seeking information about volunteer groups working in that region. His goal is to build a database of volunteer information. Contact Hale at irdi@bigfoot.com.
___ Baptist says he saw O'Hair. The Austin trial in which Gary Karr is accused of killing atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair took a bizarre turn May 25 when a Southern Baptist Convention employee took the stand to testify that he saw O'Hair alive in Romania in 1997, two years after she and her family disappeared. Bill Gordon, an interfaith witness expert with the SBC's North American Mission Board, testified he saw O'Hair in a restaurant in a Romanian resort town in November 1997, sat 10 feet away from her and even spoke to her, according to the Associated Press.
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