IN MEMORIAM Continued

several organizations, including the Bap- tist Center for Ethics, Baptist Women in Ministry, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Baptists Today, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Global Women, the CBF Foundation and the American Bible Society. She received numerous honors, such as the Southern Baptist Christian

Life

Commission Distinguished Service Award in 1987, the E. Y. Mullins Denominational Service Award from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1988 and the Courage Award from the William

H.

Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society in 2010. She served the Baptist World Alliance in a number of capacities, including as chair of the Baptist World Aid Committee and member of both the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Baptist

Doctrine and Interchurch

Cooperation. From 1989-1991, she was the first female president of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA. Crumpler earned degrees from Florida

State University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and was awarded honorary doctorates from William Carey College,

Mobile College, Campbell

University, Georgetown College and Houston Baptist University. She leaves husband James. Funeral service was held at Mt. Carmel

Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 24.

Church of Kina, a neighborhood of Bangui, the capital of CAR.

He was co-founder of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology (FATEB) of Bangui, which opened in 1977, and was, for 14 years, from 1986 to 2000, its president. FATEB was an initiative of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa,

training and

equipping pastors and leaders for churches and Christian institutions from 21 African countries. At the time of his passing, he was professor of systematic theology and coordinator of the doctoral program at FATEB.

Zokoué, who was originally from the Ivory Coast, was a former chair of the Alliance of Evangelical Churches in CAR. He was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Early African Christianity, which aims to educate African leadership in African intellectual literary

achievements, especially those

from the Christian tradition of the first millennium. He played a key role in peace negotiations and reconciliation initiatives in CAR, heading one of three national conferences in 1998 that helped to put an end to the 1996-7 national unrests. From 2001-2002, he facilitated talks between the CAR government and labor unions over salary arrears. Zokoué received his doctorate in

theology from the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Strasbourg, in France. He wrote several works, including Jesus Christ the Savior: The Mystery of the Two Natures.

Through an initiative led by Hitzemann,

German Baptists apologized for the role and behavior of German Baptists during the Nazi regime. “We pray to God that we may learn from this part of our history, so that we may be more alert in regard to ideological temptations of our day,” Hitzemann said on the occasion of the apology at a meeting of the European Baptist Federation in 1984. That year also marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of Baptist work in Germany. Beginning in 1954 he was, for 14 years, pastor of the Evangelical Free Church in Hamburg-Altona, before moving to Diakoniewerk Bethel, a social welfare organization

in Berlin, as managing

director in 1968, from where he retired in 1992.

Under his leadership Diakoniewerk expanded into various social outreach min- istries, including training for unemployed youth, the running of the Bethel retirement home and construction of the Welzheim district hospital.

Through Diakoniewerk, Hitzemann

also helped to found a housing project for students in Vienna, Austria. Walter Klimt, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Austria, said “Günter Hitzemann gave this project his very strong support and encouragement from the beginning. He was, until the end, a prayer supporter and a financial supporter of the Baptists in Austria. I am very grateful to him.” From 1982 to 1984, Hitzemann served as president of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and was a longtime vice

chair of the Diaconal

Conference of Germany’s Protestant churches.

During the 1970s, he was a member of the Budget Committee of the Baptist World Alliance.

from the Theological

He earned diplomas and degrees College

Isaac Zokoué, president of the

Fraternal Union of Baptist Churches in Central African Republic (CAR), died on September 11, 2014. He was 70 years old. Zokoué had succeeded Paul Changé as the union president following Changé’s death on August 13, 2006. Zokoué was pastor of the Baptist

30 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

Günter Hitzemann, former president of the Union of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany from 1973-1975 and 1981-1989, died on January 20, in Hamburg. He was 85 years old. Hitzemann was a well-known Free Church theologian and social welfare expert in Germany.

Cross in Gold. In 1990, he was honored by the president of the Federal Republic of Germany with the German Federal Cross of Merit.

He was predeceased by his wife,

Ingeborg, in 2012. He leaves daughters, Dagmar, Ulrike and Andrea

Funeral service was held on February 1 at the Evangelical Free Church Hamburg- Altona and burial on February 2.

Bethel-

Bielefeld and the Evangelical Free Church Theological Seminary Hamburg-Horn. In 1989, he was presented the crown

ISAAC ZOKOUÉ

GÜNTER HITZEMANN