We remember Barbara E. Williamson, wife of Clark M. Williamson (1957), with gratitude and deep fondness. She died on October 8 in Indianapolis after a battle with cancer. She was 74. She was an honors graduate of the University of Chicago with a BA in French and an MA in linguistics. After teaching French for two years, she began her professional career with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (now the American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana), serving as its executive director in the 1970s. Subsequently she worked in the United States Attorney's Office as the chief administrative officer, and as a courtroom deputy clerk in the Federal Court House in Indianapolis. Among their many benevolences, the Williamsons created the Barbara and Clark Williamson Scholarship Fund at the Disciples Divinity House. In addition to her husband, Clark, she is survived by their son, Scott Williamson and his spouse Eva, and her brother, Richard W. Unger. A memorial service was held at Central Christian Church in Indianapolis on November 5. More here.

Our condolences to Dean Kris Culp (1982), whose mother, Betty A. Culp, died October 8, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. She was 87. A former school teacher, she had been an elder and the first woman board chair of Park Avenue Christian Church, and was active in several organizations. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack O. Culp, who died in 1993, and is survived by three children, Kristine, Karen Moklestad (Tim Moklestad), and Gary (Lisa Culp); six grandchildren; five great grandchildren; and by a sister, Harriet Williams.

Journey of Faith (formerly Memorial) Christian Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is celebrating 125 years together as a congregation. Alex McCauslin (2011) is the minister, and Russell Fuller (1948) is a long-time former minister. The celebration, themed "Telling Our Story: A Past That Calls Us Forward," began in April and culminated on October 7-9.

Congratulations to Mallory and Julian DeShazier (trustee) and big sister Dania, on the birth of baby Genevieve in October.

From October 1-7, Kris Culp (1982) was in Manila and Tagaytay, the Philippines, for a meeting of a subgroup of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and for a consultation on globalization and catholicity. The subgroup was preparing a document on theological and ecclesiological foundations of "Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace."

On October 1, friends and members of Cairn Christian Church in Lafayette, Colorado, where Thandiwe Dale-Ferguson (2009) is Associate Minister, gathered to dedicate a new sanctuary in their renovated former Greek Orthodox church, culminating a process begun in 2010.

After five years serving a church in southeast London, Tod and Ana Gobledale (1975), are in a new ministry serving three churches in and near Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. They had served two United Reformed Church congregations in London since 2010.

Vaughn Gabriel Alexander (1962) died on September 5, 2016 in Austin, Texas. He was 88. He and his three brothers grew up on the family farm near Elwood, Indiana. He married Betty L. Wiley in 1954. He received a BA from Texas Christian University in 1956 and his BD from Brite Divinity School, and he was ordained in 1959. In 1962, he entered the Divinity School as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar. He would serve several congregations in the Chicago area. While at the University of Chicago, he learned computer programming. After setting up a hospital information system at the UC Hospitals and Clinics, he became Director of Computer Systems in Medicine at the AMA in Chicago. In 1975, he became the first Director of the Texas Medical Foundation in Austin, Texas. Later he started a company, Health Carecard, to provide computer-based services for doctors’ offices. He sang in the Austin Choral Union for many years, and was a lifelong learner and a volunteer. He was an elder emeritus at University Christian Church in Austin.  He is survived by two daughters, Angela Sprott (Rick) and Celeste Alexander (Rick Nauert), by his brother Warren, and by grandchildren and step-grandchildren. A memorial service was held at University Christian Church in Austin. More here.

Sandhya Jha (2001) and Yvonne Gilmore (2001; associate dean) will keynote the “Justice” and “Transformative Leadership” learning tracks at the 2017 General Assembly.

Ritch Savin-Williams (1971) is the author of Becoming Who I Am, an exploration of identity and sexuality as told by today’s generation of gay young men. Through a series of in-depth interviews with teenagers and men in their early 20s, Savin-Williams reflects on how the life stories recorded here fulfill the promise of an affirmative, thriving gay identity outlined in his earlier book, The New Gay Teenager. He offers a contemporary perspective on gay lives viewed across key milestones: from dawning awareness of same-sex attraction to first sexual encounters; from the uncertainty and exhilaration of coming out to family and friends to the forming of adult romantic relationships; from insights into what it means to be gay today to musings on what the future may hold. The voices hail from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, but as gay men they share basic experiences in common, conveyed here with honesty, humor, and joy.