Philip Potter
Philip Alford Potter (born August 19, 1921 in Roseau , Dominica ; † March 31, 2015 in Lübeck ) was a Methodist pastor and third general secretary of the World Council of Churches (1972-1984).
Life
Potter was born in 1921 to a high school teacher in Roseau and worked as a secretary for a lawyer from 1937 to 1943 . From 1940 he volunteered as a preacher for the Methodist Church on Dominica, and from 1943 as a preacher on Nevis . From 1944 to 1948 he studied theology in Kingston, Jamaica and London .
After graduating, he worked as a secretary at the English World Christian Student Union until 1950 . From 1950 he was superintendent of the West Indian Methodist Church in Haiti before moving to Geneva in 1954 as secretary of the youth department of the World Council of Churches , where he was promoted to senior secretary in 1958. In 1956 he married Doreen Cousins. From 1960 to 1968 he was President of the Christian World Student Union, from 1961 to 1967 he was also secretary of the Methodist Mission Society in England for Africa and the West Indies. From 1967 to 1972 he worked as director of the World Mission and Evangelism Department of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. On August 20, he was elected general secretary of the World Council. He held this office until 1984.
Potter, whose first wife Doreen died in 1980, married Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter in 1985 . After Potter's retirement, the two moved to Jamaica, where they taught theology at Kingston University . After his wife was elected Bishop of Lübeck in 2001, they both lived in Lübeck.
Honors
- 1971: Honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of the University of Hamburg
- Honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies
- 1984: Honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of Uppsala University
- 1982: Honorary doctorate from the Humboldt University of Berlin (GDR)
- 1986: Niwano Peace Prize
- 2001: Honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna
- 2008: Order of the Companions of OR Tambo
Fonts
- Philip A. Potter: "... so that you choose life". Texts and speeches by a designer of the ecumenical vision. Ed .: Andrea Fröchtling, Rudolf Hinz, Paul Löffler and Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter . Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-7675-7149-5 .
literature
- Johannes Althausen : Philip A. Potter - Preacher of Solidarity (= Christian in the world 39), Union Verlag Berlin 1976.
Web links
- Literature by and about Philip Potter in the catalog of the German National Library
- Thomson Fontaine: Rev. Dr Philip Potter - A world Icon. The Dominican, April 10, 2011.
- The great man of ecumenism: Philip Potter turns 90 ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) August 19, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Methodist: Former WCC general secretary Philip Potter is dead . idea message from March 31, 2015.
- ↑ Theology Hedersdoktorer. Uppsala University Faculty of Theology, accessed April 1, 2015.
- ^ South African government honors theologian Philip Potter . epd article on ekd.de , April 22, 2008.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Potter, Philip |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Potter, Philip Alford (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dominican minister, general secretary of the World Council of Churches |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 19, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Roseau , Dominica |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 31, 2015 |
| Place of death | Lübeck |