The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2014 - (Page 12)
o bITuarY
Remembering Rachel Gill
by Katie Cook
R
achel Granger Gill, a longtime bpfna supporter and a
board member for many years, died in black mountain,
NC, on January 22. Rachel Gill is one of the main reasons
that I became involved with BPFNA publications.
it seems that she and ken sehested came up with a plan
to entice me onto the BPFNA board of directors in 1995.
They put me on the publications committee, where Rachel
was chair, and where, although i was oblivious, she was
grooming me to take her place. As soon as I took the role of
committee chair, Rachel retired from the board, saying she
was confident that I could handle it.
a few years later, i ended up as guest editor and then
interim editor of baptist peacemaker, which then evolved
in a couple more years into a long-term position. All of this
happened directly under Rachel's steady and affirming gaze.
she sometimes gave me the impression that this had been
her plan all along.
She leaves a profound legacy. One of her former editors
described her as "a kind and gentle spirit in an unsettling
and often hostile world." Born October 26, 1931, in Hickory,
NC, Rachel was one of eight children. She grew up during
the Great depression in the rural us south, a circumstance
that her family says influenced her whole life. She graduated
from mars Hill Junior college in 1952, wake forest college
in 1955, and Southeastern Baptist Seminary in 1985.
in 1964, Rachel and her husband, everett (buddy-also
a longtime bpfna friend) moved to penn center in low
country south carolina, where they worked for four years
in the civil rights movement.
when they moved to atlanta, Ga, Rachel was editor of
Alternatives Magazine and later was a feature writer for
missions usa, a publication of the southern baptist convention's Home Mission Board. Traveling with a photographer to
chronicle ministries in urban and rural missions throughout
the US, she won several national awards for her work.
During her career as a journalist, she had a card on her
desk that read, "it's a complicated world, and there aren't
always easy answers."
as a member of oakhurst baptist church (an early
bpfna partner congregation) in decatur, Ga, Rachel
was one of the first female deacons ordained by a Southern
Baptist church in Georgia in the 1970s. During her years at
oakhurst, Rachel served on the board of directors for seeds
Magazine, as well as the BPFNA board.
she held congregational leadership positions in the
church during several decades of significant change-which
included, in turn, racial integration, ordination of women
and the inclusion of people from the LGBT community.
i was at a meeting of the church's peace group in a
member's home in decatur when the church was deliberating
about whether or not to ordain a man to the ministry who
happened to be gay. Rachel knew that the church could be
ousted from any number of baptist church bodies (it had
already been kicked out of several), and that the church's
next action could mean that she would be fired from her job
with the SBC Home Mission Board.
during the meeting, someone said, "Rachel, what about
your job?" She said, "This is not about my job. This is about
whether this man has been called by God to the gospel ministry."
buddy Gill said in January that much of Rachel's spiritual life included sacred music. When she died at the nursing
center in their retirement community in black mountain,
she was surrounded with family and "with hymn singing
and guitar playing and prayers and expressions of love. In
fact, someone remarked that she had never seen a room so
filled with love. I really think it was love being returned."
-Katie Cook is the editor of baptist peacemaker. Sources:
Asheville Citizen Times, Asheville, NC; Associated Baptist
Press; Atlanta Constitution, Buddy Gill.
Left: Rachel Gill at a family gathering in New Mexico.
Courtesy of Buddy Gill.
12
Baptist Peacemaker
Apr-Jun 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2014
También de este Lado Hay Sueños: This Side Also Has Dreams
El Ranchito: Sharing the Great Outdoors
Good News About Hershey's
The Birth of the Baptist Peace Fellowship
Letter to the Editor
Austin Heights Baptist Church & the Tar Sands Blockade
Future Peace Camp Locations
Remembering Rachel Gill
Inching Toward Peace Between Israel & Palestine
The BPFNA Companioning Program
Reflections From a BPFNA Young Adult Gathering
Wal-Mart Joins Fair Food Program
Resources & Opportunities
2013 BPFNA Highlights
2013 Contributors
Shalom Prayer
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2014
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http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-1
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-4
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com