People
Army Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain who was cleared after an espionage investigation that drew national attention, has submitted his resignation from the military. Yee, 35, who was imprisoned for 76 days during the probe, said August 2 that even after lesser charges against him were dropped, officials never apologized to him, the Associated Press reported. He also said officials never let him retrieve his belongings from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he had ministered to prisoners at a naval station. Yee asked to be discharged from the army January 7, and his lawyer said he doubted Yee’s request would be denied.
The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has chosen a new coordinating director. Gary Percesepe, a longtime peace activist, started in the post in mid-July, the Charlotte, North Carolina–based organization announced. The American Baptist minister has worked as a pastor, professor and director of nonprofit organizations.
Clive Calver, the president of World Relief, has announced his resignation from the Baltimore-based organization, effective September 30, to pursue local church ministry. Calver, 55, has been president of the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals for seven years. He was responsible for a restructuring of the organization that led to a new base in Baltimore rather than three sites across the country.
J. Irwin Miller, an industrialist and philanthropist in Indiana who led the National Council of Churches–coordinated drive for civil rights legislation and was the ecumenical body’s first lay president (1960-63), died August 16 at age 95. Miller transformed Cummins Inc., in Columbus, Indiana, from a small firm manufacturing heavy-duty diesel engines into a Fortune 500 company with 250,000 employees in 131 countries. A member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Miller had priorities that included “keeping the church faithful, relevant and effective,” said Bob Edgar, general secretary of the NCC. Under Miller’s leadership, the NCC founded the Commission on Religion and Race, which helped sponsor the March on Washington featuring Martin Luther King Jr. Miller shut down the Cummins factory in South Africa to protest that nation’s apartheid laws and in 1986 helped write U.S. legislation that led to economic sanctions against South Africa.
