IN MEMORIAM

rhythmical translation of the Psalms. He also did translation work on Genesis, Lamentations and Hebrews.

Aleksandar Birviš, former president of the Union of Baptist Churches in Serbia, died on February 1. He was 87 years old. Birviš was pastor of the Baptist Church in Novi Sad from 1957-1959 and of Belgrade Christian Baptist Church from 1970-2001.

He was professor of Old Testament and church history at the Baptist Theological School in Novi Sad and several other evangelical schools in former Yugoslavia. From 1989 to 1991 he served as academic dean at

the Evangelical Theological

Seminary in Osijek and in the 2000s at the Novi Sad Faculty of Theology.

He was president of the Union of Baptist

Churches and of the Yugoslav Association for Religious Freedom in the early years of the 21st

century.

Birviš was a linguist and Bible translator, working with

the London

Bible Society, Serbian division. His most well known Serbian translation was the

Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, execu- tive director of the Woman’s Missionary

He was the author of several books and a great number of articles in Baptist, evangelical and secular magazines. Birviš earned degrees and diplomas from the University of Belgrade and the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Belgrade. In 1991 he received an honorary doctoral degree from the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the United States. He is a former member of the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance. Funeral for Birviš was on February 4, in Novi Sad.

Union (WMU) in the United States, from 1974 to 1989, died on January 2 in Cincin- nati, Ohio. She was 84 years old. Crumpler worked first with Florida WMU and then Alabama

as WMU

promotion director in the 1960s. She returned to Florida to become executive director of WMU in the state, from where she left to become executive director for the national body.

During the years she led the national WMU, the organization

growth in church mission organizations; began several Acteens

initiatives, Activators, Baptist Nursing

Fellowship and New Hope Publishers; and moved the WMU offices from downtown Birmingham in the state of Alabama to its current location in Birmingham. Crumpler helped to found the Co-

operative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). She was a member of the Interim Steering Committee that laid the groundwork for the new organization, was a member of the first CBF Coordinating Council and was the fourth CBF moderator, serving from 1995-1996. In addition, she was a founder of CBF’s Baptist Women in Ministry. Crumpler served on the boards of (Continued on next page)

to think that everyone in prison doesn’t deserve to be there. We also know that they are the ones we call when there is a life- threatening situation. We need our public safety officers where many have laid their lives on the line and in some cases have sacrificed their lives. It’s a different kind of violence when now the fear of a seven year old being handcuffed and escorted out of school to a police station is a reality, or witnessing an 18 year old boy being shot down in his own home in a borough where not one police officer has ever been convicted of murder. It’s a different kind of violence. As faith leaders I believe we’re entering a new era of justice. In the past, time was always on the side of those that opposed us because after enough time had elapsed, we were no longer present. We were no longer vocal—out of sight, out of mind. We simply complained about the injustices. But I believe it’s a new day. I believe there is a new face for this next Civil Rights Movement and it’s not a face of a man but the face of a people. I believe people of faith will be present when in days past we were absent. It is because people from all over the city are rising up with one voice declaring enough is enough. It’s no longer pockets of revolutionists. It is becoming a nationwide movement where the people’s voices are no longer muted, where those that would want us to remain silent can no longer hold the muzzle over our mouths. We reject the muzzle. And, as people of faith, we’re

AFTER THE MARCHES, the rallies, the protests, the anger, the

emotional high and indignation, the question remains:

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NEXT? . . . THE CHURCH MUST STEP UP.

rising up as revolutionists for mercy, love and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the mount with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the genuine discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, pray together; to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom forever, knowing that we will be free one day.” Yes, we pray. But, we also work. We know the effectual prayer

of a righteous availeth much. And we also know that faith without works is dead. We must pray. We must work. We must write. We must call. We must show up. We must speak up. We must reach up until justice has cried her last tear. Que English is pastor of Bronx Christian Fellowship in New

York City, and co-founder of the Bronx Clergy Criminal Justice Roundtable.

APRIL/JUNE 2015 29

experienced including

ALEKSANDAR BIRVIŠ

CAROLYN

WEATHERFORD CRUMPLER