Covenant Network joins Presbyterians all across the church in mourning the death on April 11 of the Rev. James Costen. Dr. Costen was Moderator of the 194th General Assembly, in the "reunion" year of 1982, and President Emeritus of Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center.
He was a member of the Covenant Network's Board of Advisors and an original signer of the Call to Covenant Community. He was one of the drafters of the Open Letter to the PCUSA by leading African-American Presbyterians in early 1998, which called for the Unity in Diversity conferences and which asked the church not to practice the same discrimination against sexual minorities that it had against them.
Dr. Costen entered the hospital last month, just on the point of heading (again) to Kenya, where he would have seen the dedication of a new building, named in his and his wife Melva's honor, at a Presbyterian college and seminary near Nairobi for which he had worked tirelessly for many years.
The service in witness to the resurrection will be held after Easter, on April 22, at Morehouse College. Costen's close friend, Covenant Network Director Oscar McCloud, will deliver the eulogy.
Those wishing to remember Dr. Costen by honoring his work are invited to make donations to the Pastoral Institute of Kenya (Presbyterian Church of East Africa); donations may be sent to P. O. Box 42497, Atlanta GA 30311.
The Presbyterian News Service story follows:
LOUISVILLE - The Rev. James H. Costen, a prominent Presbyterian educator and church leader, died on April 11 in an Atlanta, GA, hospital. He was 71.
He died after contracting pneumonia while recovering from surgery.
Costen was the moderator of the 194th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (UPCUSA), the northern church, in 1982, when it merged with the southern branch, the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) to form the Presbyterian Church (USA).
He was president emeritus of Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), a five-seminary ecumenical consortium founded in the late 1950s. He was a global churchman whose world travels included visits to Liberia, Cameroon, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Russia and Egypt.
After his retirement from ITC, Costen served as a volunteer development officer for a school operated by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) near Nairobi, Kenya.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years and partner in ministry, Melva Costen, and their three children, James Jr., Craig and Cheryl.
"Part of why I'm grateful to God for Jim Costen is that he represents the very best of what it means to be a Presbyterian," the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)'s stated clerk, said upon hearing of Costen's death. "He was pivotal in our church's reunion. He had a passion for equipping pastors in our church, and he had the same passion for doing that same work in Kenya and throughout East Africa.
"He was a wonderfully warm human being who exuded the gospel and the very best of the vision of the Presbyterian Church."
Characteristically, Costen died with his suitcase packed. He was scheduled to leave for East Africa the day before he was admitted to the hospital. He planned to attend the dedication of a PCEA faculty-staff housing complex at a Presbyterian college and pastoral institute on the outskirts of Nairobi. The complex is named for Costen and his wife.
Costen, who worked as a fund-raiser for the institution while serving as a PC(USA) mission volunteer, had raised $750,000 to build the housing complex and a library in Kikuyu.
"He had a deep love for Africa, particularly Kenya and the PCEA," said Jon Chapman, the PC(USA)'s coordinator for Southern and Eastern Africa. "In his role as president of ITC in Atlanta, he helped train more than 40 PCEA pastors."
Costen was born in Omaha, NE, on Oct. 5, 1931. He was a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC, where he was awarded his bachelor's and divinity degrees. He earned a Masters in Theology in religious education at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC.
After serving pastorates in Rocky Mount, NC, and Atlanta, GA, Costen stepped to the forefront of a national movement to prevent the closure of Johnson C. Smith when it was threatened with closure because of declining enrollment and financial problems. The seminary survived, but was moved to Atlanta and made part of ITC. Costen then served as its dean. In 1983, he was elected president of ITC, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.
Under his leadership, ITC's enrollment grew from 175 students to about 400, and its annual budget shot up from about $1.7 million to almost $6 million. The school has benefited in recent years from a series of capital improvements, including an endowed education center.
Since the late 1980s, Costen's wife, Melva, has taught music
and worship at ITC. She chaired the PC(USA) committee that developed
the reunited denomination's first hymnal.
The Costens met as students at Johnson C. Smith. In a 1983 interview
with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Costen spoke of his first
impression of his wife: "She was so smart, so smart. I was
so impressed with how well and how simply she did so many things.
None of that has changed."
Costen was a member of the National Conference of Black Churchmen; the Consulting Committee on Ethnic Minority Ministries of the United Presbyterian Vocation Agency; the Task Force on Reunion with the Presbyterian Church in the United States; and the Joint UPCUSA/PCUS Task Force on a More Effective Placement System.
He served as chairman of the board and chairman of the Development Committee of the Boggs Academy in Keysville, GA; was a founder and chairman of the board of the Harbison Development Corporation, a planned HUD Title VII town near Columbia, SC; and was a member of Leadership Atlanta.