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D. James Kennedy, influential Christian broadcaster and megachurch pioneer, dies at 76
http://wcbstv.com/nationalwire/Obit-...rces_news_html
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the nation's most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, died Wednesday, a church spokesman said. He was 76.
Church spokesman John Aman said Kennedy died at his home in Fort Lauderdale. He had announced his retirement last month and had recently suffered a heart attack.
Kennedy took the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale from a congregation of 45 in 1959 to a megachurch of nearly 10,000 members today.
He also founded the Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, organizing Capitol Hill Bible studies and other events that attracted top government officials and encouraged them ``to embrace God's providential purpose for this nation.''
In 1974, Kennedy started Coral Ridge Ministries, his radio and TV outreach arm, which now claims a weekly audience of 3.5 million. Kennedy's TV show ``The Coral Ridge Hour,'' airs on more than 400 stations and four cable networks and is broadcast to more than 150 countries on the Armed Forces Network, his ministry says. Last year, the National Religious Broadcasters association inducted him into their Hall of Fame.
``He was one of the early visionaries who saw that you could use electronic media to extend the four walls of the church to reach a broader audience,'' said Frank Wright, president and chief executive officer of the NRB.
Kennedy was a close colleague of the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other religious broadcasters and was an early board member of the Moral Maof energy needed to run the isolated post. Other energy sources will come from large wind turbines.
``Every ton of fuel you have to bring there costs a ton of money, and it is really a very difficult process,'' Berte said. ``By building a zero emissions station ... you won't need that any more, so that's healthy.''
Scientists behind the station, which is expected to have a lifespan of 25 years, aim to conduct research in climatology, glaciology and microbiology. The Belgian government will contribute funding to the public-private project.
Parts of the station are expected to reach the Antarctic northeastern coastline by Dec. 25 and then will be hauled, piece by piece, onto the 20- to 30-meter-high (yards) ice shelf, and some 200 kilometers (124 miles) inland, where it will be rebuilt and become home to 20 scientists from November to February, summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The station will be nestled on a ridge a few kilometers (miles) north of the Soer Rondane Mountains, and will form part of a network of stations with Russia and Japan, which have stations nearby.
``The biggest challenge will be to unload on the Antarctic continent,'' said Berte. ``We have the ice shelf, we have the sea ice and we have the big step like up to 20-30 meters (yards) that we have to get up there. ... The logistics is half of the job; it's not an easy thing.''
The new station will mark the return of Belgium to Antarctica after it closed its first science station on the continent in 1967.
The station project is part of International Polar Year, a global initiative involving more than 50,000 researchers studying how global warming and other phenomena are changing the coldest parts of the Earth and how this impacts the rest of the world.
The initiative is the largest of its type for 50 years, unifying scientists from 63 nations in 228 studies to monitor the health of the polar regions, using icebreakers, satellites, stations and submarines.
http://wcbstv.com/nationalwire/Obit-...rces_news_html
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the nation's most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, died Wednesday, a church spokesman said. He was 76.
Church spokesman John Aman said Kennedy died at his home in Fort Lauderdale. He had announced his retirement last month and had recently suffered a heart attack.
Kennedy took the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale from a congregation of 45 in 1959 to a megachurch of nearly 10,000 members today.
He also founded the Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, organizing Capitol Hill Bible studies and other events that attracted top government officials and encouraged them ``to embrace God's providential purpose for this nation.''
In 1974, Kennedy started Coral Ridge Ministries, his radio and TV outreach arm, which now claims a weekly audience of 3.5 million. Kennedy's TV show ``The Coral Ridge Hour,'' airs on more than 400 stations and four cable networks and is broadcast to more than 150 countries on the Armed Forces Network, his ministry says. Last year, the National Religious Broadcasters association inducted him into their Hall of Fame.
``He was one of the early visionaries who saw that you could use electronic media to extend the four walls of the church to reach a broader audience,'' said Frank Wright, president and chief executive officer of the NRB.
Kennedy was a close colleague of the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other religious broadcasters and was an early board member of the Moral Maof energy needed to run the isolated post. Other energy sources will come from large wind turbines.
``Every ton of fuel you have to bring there costs a ton of money, and it is really a very difficult process,'' Berte said. ``By building a zero emissions station ... you won't need that any more, so that's healthy.''
Scientists behind the station, which is expected to have a lifespan of 25 years, aim to conduct research in climatology, glaciology and microbiology. The Belgian government will contribute funding to the public-private project.
Parts of the station are expected to reach the Antarctic northeastern coastline by Dec. 25 and then will be hauled, piece by piece, onto the 20- to 30-meter-high (yards) ice shelf, and some 200 kilometers (124 miles) inland, where it will be rebuilt and become home to 20 scientists from November to February, summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The station will be nestled on a ridge a few kilometers (miles) north of the Soer Rondane Mountains, and will form part of a network of stations with Russia and Japan, which have stations nearby.
``The biggest challenge will be to unload on the Antarctic continent,'' said Berte. ``We have the ice shelf, we have the sea ice and we have the big step like up to 20-30 meters (yards) that we have to get up there. ... The logistics is half of the job; it's not an easy thing.''
The new station will mark the return of Belgium to Antarctica after it closed its first science station on the continent in 1967.
The station project is part of International Polar Year, a global initiative involving more than 50,000 researchers studying how global warming and other phenomena are changing the coldest parts of the Earth and how this impacts the rest of the world.
The initiative is the largest of its type for 50 years, unifying scientists from 63 nations in 228 studies to monitor the health of the polar regions, using icebreakers, satellites, stations and submarines.
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