Maynard Pittendreigh
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The Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh is an astronomer, writer and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). As a minister, he has been a pioneer and leader in a movement toward multi-cultural/racial congregations, and in developing early Internet-based ministries.
William Maynard Pittendreigh, Jr., was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, February 6, 1954, son of Bill and Earline Pittendreigh. He suffered a severe speech handicap as a child, but was able to overcome the disability through surgery and several years of therapy.
Pittendreigh attended Christ Church Episcopal School, Greenville, South Carolina until desegregation, when he entered public school. He received his B.A. degree at Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, where he met and married Ginny Enzor. He earned his Master of Divinity degree from Erskine Theological Seminary and his doctorate from Columbia Theological Seminary. He also attended Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, where he earned a Certification as a Church Business Administrator.
Prior to entering the ministry, Pittendreigh worked as a photojournalist, restaurant manager and as a teacher/counselor in a state prison. As a child he worked as a fashion model for J.C. Penney.
As an ordained minister, he has worked as a police chaplain in Abbeville, South Carolina, as the Associate Executive Presbyter of Trinity Presbytery (formerly South Carolina Presbytery), as a religious technical advisor for several films, and as a member of the credentialed press for various religious publications including being the editor of the Church Ad-Ministrator Magazine. Most of his career has been spent serving as the Senior Pastor of various congregations in South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. He has done mission work in India, Haiti and with the Navajo in Arizona and Utah. He is currently the Senior Pastor of a church in Miami, Florida.
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[edit] Pioneering Racially Diverse Congregations
As a teenager, Pittendreigh was involved in local Civil Rights movements. He participated in demonstrations organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. Pittendreigh became an advocate of multi-cultural and interracial congregations as a seminary student in the 1970's, when it was frequently said, "the most segregated time in America is Sunday morning." He was one of the authors of the Erskine Declaration. Considered controversial at the time, the Erskine Declaration was a student mandate toward breaking the "color line" that prevented Blacks and Whites from worshipping together. The Erskine Declaration became a model for seminary student bodies working toward multi-cultural congregations. As a minister, Pittendreigh has insisted on his pastorates accepting members of all races.
[edit] Pioneering Church Use Of The Internet
Dr. Pittendreigh was one of the first Christian clergy to use the Internet for ministry. He was one of the founding participants of a small group that formed Ecunet in 1985, the first Christian online community. In 1987 he developed what may have been the first email support group for clergy. At that time, the number of email users numbered only a few thousand. He developed one of the earliest web pages dedicated to the work of a congregation when he set up a web page for the New Bethel Presbyterian Church (Piney Flats, Tennessee). The web page went online in 1994. In 1996, Pittendreigh became one of the founding members of a sermon exchange group, in which pastors shared sermon and worship material online without charge. By the end of the 20th Century, Pittendreigh's online sermons were being read throughout the world.
Pittendreigh was the first internet journalist to be recognized by the Presbyterian Church (USA) by being granted press credentials at national level meetings. In 2000, he became the the first press-credentialed blogger to report from the annual, national level General Assembly meetings. [1]
[edit] Astronomy
Pittendreigh has been a life-long active amateur astronomer and wrote several books and articles about astronomy in the United States and the United Kingdom. His work, "Pittendreigh's Law of Planetary Motion" was published in Sky and Telescope magazine in February 1994. During the early years of the Hubble Space Telescope, Pittendreigh was on an international team of amateur astronomers allowed to work with NASA in using the space telescope in a study of asteroids. The name of their study was "Transition Comets -- UV Search for OH Emissions in Asteroids." He has also done extensive work in the area of Arp peculiar galaxies.
[edit] Published works
A prolific writer, Pittendreigh wrote several books, including:
- A History of Erskine Theological Seminary (1976)
- A Presbyterian People - The History of the Warrenton Presbyterian Church (1986)
- An Observer's Guide to Messier's Deep Sky Objects (1992)
- An Observer's Atlas to the Moon (1994)
- The Case of the Murdered Fig Tree - A Collection of Sermons (1994)
- A People of Faith - A History of New Bethel Presbyterian Church (1995)
- The Presbyterian Church Welcomes You (2003) ISBN 1-4107-1901-4
- Teach Us To Pray -- Sermons on the Lord's Prayer (2005)
Pittendreigh also wrote a humor column in the Clergy Journal for several years. He was editor of the Church Ad-Ministrator magazine from 1994-1998.
[edit] Quotations
(Asked to give the opening prayer at a meeting of the Session, or board of elders, one elder said, "I'd like for our pastor to lead our prayer because that is what he's paid to do," Pittendreigh responded with...) "I pray for free. I preach for free. I visit the sick and lonely for free. I'm paid to lead elders' meetings and for that I'm woefully underpaid." [2]
"The dictionary is just one person's opinion of how to spell words. It is not necessarily my opinion." [3]
