[Oe List ...] Completed life of George Gardner

[cdzoll at comcast.net]

It would be interesting to find out what he did with that combination of 
RS-l and Creation Spirituality...I hope you follow up and see if that is 
available. I'm sorry that I did not know him.  I had a homiletics professor 
(preaching) one time who lived in the Bay Area who died and was working of 
some stuff that I was interested in, and I tried to get his widow to let me 
have some of it to work on and see if I could finish, but she gave it to 
somebody else.  David Zollars
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <LAURELCG at aol.com>
To: <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>; <OE at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 12:25 PM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Completed life of George Gardner


>I don't know if any of you'll remember George.  He and I shared a class at
> the Univ. of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, probably in 2000.  I was so
> excited that his dissertation project was to be adapting RS-1, which he 
> had taken
> in Chicago in the 60's, to a youth curriculum, integrated with Matthew 
> Fox's
> four paths of creation spirituality (Vias Negative, Positiva, Creativa and
> Transformativa.)  I don't know whether or not he finished the program. 
> I'd be very
> interested with others' memories of him.  He let his light shine brightly.
>
> Blessings,
> Jann McGuire
>
> Cancer claims life of outspoken pastor George Gardner
> Posted on Fri, Oct. 22, 2004                   BY DANA STRONGIN
> The Wichita Eagle
>
> George Gardner, senior minister of Unity Church of Wichita and former 
> United
> Methodist clergyman, died Thursday evening.
>
> The Rev. Gardner, who was 69, had been battling cancer since his diagnosis 
> in
> the spring, said longtime friend Diane Rush.
>
> The Rev. Gardner had been with the Unity Church since 2002, the same year 
> he
> resigned from the United Methodist Church after 42 years of service in
> south-central Kansas.
>
> The Rev. Gardner was among Wichita's most outspoken liberal clergy and was 
> an
> advocate for civil rights. He helped form the Kansas Religious Coalition 
> for
> Reproductive Choice and performed ceremonies for same-sex couples.
>
> Rush has kept in touch with the Rev. Gardner since they met more than 40
> years ago at a youth workshop.
>
> "He was fresh out of seminary and ready to burn up the world" with his
> passion, she said.
>
> Even when he was a teenager, Rush said, the Rev. Gardner showed a 
> steadfast
> dedication to his faith.
>
> "He didn't know what it meant to take a day off," she said. "He just
> lived for the church and for serving people, for ministering to people."
>
> The Rev. Gardner took his interest in social activism to the airwaves with 
> a
> radio talk show in the 1960s and 70s, Rush said. The speakers were "people 
> on
> the cutting edge of social activism of one stripe or another," she said.
>
> "His brand of theology was 'progressive' before that term was ever used,"
> Rush said.
>
> The Rev. Gardner also added flair to his services with surprise elements,
> such as jazz music, nationally known speakers and components from Broadway 
> plays.
>
> Lynda Pletcher, who met the Rev. Gardner while serving as an educator at a
> Methodist church in Winfield, will always remember him as giving her and 
> her
> daughter "gifts of encouragement."
>
> The Rev. Gardner helped Pletcher decide to start a new career in North
> Carolina, and he later helped her daughter, Reuellyn, develop her passion 
> for youth
> ministries.
>
> Survivors include the Rev. Gardner's mother, two daughters and a grandson.
> Services had not been set.
>
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