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Technorati"Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Billy Graham said in a statement after her death. Billy has always told reporters that his wife Ruth is the greatest Christian he has ever known.
In August, Billy Graham gave the world a scare when he was admitted to Mission Health & Hospitals in Asheville, N.C., after experiencing intestinal bleeding. The 88-year-old evangelist returned to his home before the month’s end, however, in good spirits, reported Graham's spokesman, Larry Ross.
"He has been adjusting to life without his wife and ministry partner of nearly 64 years," the spokesman added.
Shortly after Graham’s hospital stint, influential conservative leader Dr. D. James Kennedy, who had been dubbed by some evangelicals as one of the Church's "truly significant figures," died "peacefully in his sleep" at home on the morning of Sept. 5. Kennedy, who was 76 when he died, had built a Christian media empire with his radio and television ministry, which reaches more than 3 million people. He also wrote more than 65 books, created Evangelism Explosion, and was a founding board member of the Moral Majority.
After Kennedy’s passing, 34-year-old Brian E. Fisher was promoted to president and CEO of Coral Ridge Ministries – Kennedy’s multi-media ministry.
Not long after Kennedy’s death, another Christian media pioneer also passed away. At the age of 88, the Rev. Rex Humbard, one of America's premier televangelists, died of natural causes on Sept. 21 at a South Florida hospital near his home in Lantana, Fla.
According to his son, Charles Humbard, president of Gospel Music Channel, the televangelist was the first minister to broadcast a church service on television on a weekly basis.
Most recently, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson publicly announced on Dec. 3 that he has passed on his duty as chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network to his son, Gordon.
CBN's Board of Directors unanimously voted the weekend before to name Gordon Robertson, 49, the CEO immediately. Pat Robertson, 77, will remain chairman of the Virginia-based network, which produces programming seen in 180 nations and heard in 71 languages including Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Chinese.
Another prominent Christian leader who stepped down this year was world renowned theologian and evangelist Dr. John Stott, who in April announced his decision to retire from public ministry at the age of 86.
Stott, who has been called by the Rev. Billy Graham as “the most respected clergyman in the world today,” spoke at one last public event in July before moving to a retirement community for Anglican clergy.
7. Ecumenical Landmarks
The year 2007 witnessed a number of global efforts toward unity. One of the most prominent was perhaps the unprecedented open letter signed in October by 138 representative Muslim leaders. According to Newsweek, signers of the letter hailed from all branches of Islam – Sunni and Shia, Salafi and Sufi, liberal and conservative – and included no fewer than 19 current and former grand ayatollahs and grand muftis.
The Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals had signed the letter calling for peace between Muslims and Christians. The letter, entitled “A Common World Between Us and You,” urged followers of the two faiths to find “common ground” and not simply just for “polite ecumenical dialogue” between certain religious leaders. Continue »
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