Three sad and untimely deaths

 

India - Rev. Prof. Prasanna Kumari Samuel, one of India's leading church figures and a former treasurer of ECLOF India, died suddenly in March of this year, aged 56. Prof. Kumari, who was a vice-president of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), was known as a leading advocate of women's equality. "Her untimely death is a great loss to the Indian church," said the NCCI's president, Bishop Jeypaul David. In 1991, she was one of the first two Lutheran women to be ordained in India, and the first woman to serve as executive secretary for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India. Prasanna Kumari was a professor of theology at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College in Chennai, and head of its department for women's studies. She served as vice-president of the Lutheran World Federation from 1997 to 2000, and was well known within the ecumenical movement.

 

Ghana - Millicent Amoako Adjei It is with great sadness that New Horizons has to report the death in a traffic accident of Millicent Amoako Adjei, assistant loan officer for ECLOF Ghana. She was aged 24.

Millie, as she was known, belonged to the Methodist Church and joined ECLOF Ghana last September, where she quickly made her mark.

After the announcement of Millie's death on 17 March, the ECLOF Ghana board paid tribute to her in a statement that included these words, "During her short working life, Millie proved that she was hard working, and she endeared herself to the board, management and staff. Millie was a cheerful person and had a vibrant personality." Participants at last year's ECLOF African regional workshop in Accra remember her fondly.

 

 

Armenia - Mariam Ghazaryan, a member of the Armenian ECLOF board, was among those who died when the plane on which she was travelling crashed into the Black Sea on 2 May. All 113 people on board the Armenian Airbus A-320 died as the plane made a second attempt to land at an airport near Sochi, on the Russian coast.

Mariam was on her way from Armenia's capital Yerevan to Abkhazia on behalf of her employer, Mission Armenia, which is a non-governmental organization that supports elderly and disabled people.

Mariam was aged 34 and had an eighteen-month-old son. On behalf of the whole ECLOF family, New Horizons offers Mariam's family its sympathy at this sad time.