Provided by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society
For immediate release – September 8, 2017, Bethany, WV
At a regularly scheduled board meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, the Reverend Dr. Richard H. Lowery was called to be the general ministry’s eighth President. Lowery will assume the reins in early November 2017.
DCHS followed the Executive Search Process for calling a leader as prescribed by the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. There is excitement within the Board about this call. “The Disciples of Christ Historical Society is blessed to have Dr. Rick Lowery become its new President. We look forward to his leadership and to the new and exciting path he will guide us toward” says Archie Jenkins, chair of the Board of Trustees. “It is with much excitement that Dr. Lowery has accepted the call to reconciliation, hospitality and preserving the WHOLE of our history and its future, as the new DCHS President. We are hopeful and ready to move forward as we continue to build on foundations that serve the whole of our communities”, Siobhan Lopez, Trustee and search committee member.
Lowery follows in a line of Church leaders who have lived out their calling by stewarding the chief executive office. John Imbler, the current interim Executive is “thrilled to pass the mantle of leadership to the Rev. Lowery. Rick brings a unique blend of skills as a church leader, scholar, manager and fund raiser that will benefit the Society and the Stone-Campbell churches for the present and the future.” President Emeritus Peter Morgan reminds the church that “the Presidency of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society is a calling which requires the Spirit gifts of hospitality, scholarship, teaching and administration. God has granted Dr. Richard Lowery an abundance of those gifts.”
Lowery has served the church as a Professor of Sacred Scripture, Dean of Lexington Theological Seminary, and as a popular lecturer, teacher and retreat leader across the life of the church. His training,, experiences and pastoral temperament make him uniquely
qualified to lead this ministry into the future of its history, As President he will lead the staff and be the responsible steward of the mission of the ministry.
General ministry is not foreign to the President Elect, as his daughter, The Reverend Bethany Watkins Lowery currently serves on the staff of Disciples Church Extension Fund/Hope Partnership. His son Chris resides in Indianapolis, IN. He and his wife, The Reverend Dr. Sharon Watkins who served for 12 years as the General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ, will reside in the Village of Bethany, WV where they will live and serve with the people of this bucolic academic community, He will live with the collection that continues, with the Saints, to speak to the church. Many of the generative ideas and ethos of the Stone – Campbell people came to life in and around Bethany. The Society is strategically located here, and thus is poised to capture and shape a future for the church that is rooted in who we are, in who we have been, and in who we will become. All of this is for the glory of God.
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