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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