Sir Alan Walker, World Methodist evangelist, dies at 91
1/30/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
NOTE: A photograph of Sir Alan Walker is available.
United Methodist News Service
Sir
Alan Walker (second from left) poses with other Methodist evangelism
leaders in this undated file photograph from Tallinn, Estonia. Walker,
whose ministry spanned most of the 20th century, died Jan. 29 in Sydney,
Australia, at the age of 91. From left are the Revs. George Morris,
Walker, H. Eddie Fox and Maxie Dunnam. A Methodist minister, Walker was
the first to hold the position of world director of evangelism for the
World Methodist Council, a post in which he served from 1978 to 1988. A
UMNS photo courtesy of World Methodist Evangelism. Photo number 03-32,
Accompanies UMNS #041, 1/30/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Sir Alan Walker, whose ministry spanned most of the 20th century, died Jan. 29 in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 91.
A
Methodist minister, Walker was the first to hold the position of world
director of evangelism for the World Methodist Council, a post in which
he served from 1978 to 1988.
The Rev. H. Eddie Fox, who
succeeded Walker and still serves as the council's evangelism director,
noted that Walker and his wife, Lady Winifred, traveled to 78 countries
to proclaim the gospel during the 1980s.
"This magnificent
obsession of Sir Alan made evangelism credible again in the worldwide
Methodist movement," Fox said. "Today, we stand on the shoulders of Sir
Alan and Lady Win, and we can see farther and more clearly what it means
to offer Christ today."
Walker, whose honors included being
knighted by Queen Elizabeth and receiving the 1986 World Methodist Peace
Award, made his mark on the world by being a prophetic evangelist, Fox
added.
According to the Rev. Joe Hale, retired chief executive of
the World Methodist Council, "We learned so much by watching and
hearing the Walkers take courageous stands, seek the exercise of justice
and pursue the cause of peace. We seek to follow to the example they
have set."
The council's current chief executive, the Rev. George
Freeman, called Walker's work "a great legacy" and noted that his
writings continue to be used. "Sir Alan Walker not only reached
Methodist people around the world, but others as well through his
preaching and teaching as they came to know Christ," he said.
Under
Walker's leadership, the World Methodist Evangelism Institute was
founded in 1982 as a ministry of the council and United
Methodist-related Candler School of Theology at Emory University in
Atlanta. The Rev. George E. Morris, who currently serves as the senior
professor of world evangelism and was the founding director of the
institute, said, "These ministries reflect the imprint of Sir Alan
Walker, and they are what they are today as a result of this imprint."
A
native of Sydney, Walker was a Methodist preacher for 70 years. He led
crusades across Australia in the 1950s and founded Lifeline, a telephone
counseling service that is now international, in 1963.
After
retiring from the World Methodist Council, he served as principal of the
Pacific College of Evangelism in Sydney until 1995. The school was
later renamed Alan Walker College of Evangelism in Sydney.
Walker is survived by his wife, Lady Winifred Walker, a daughter and three sons.
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*The Rev. H. Eddie Fox, world director of evangelism for the World Methodist Council, provided information for this report.
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