Memorial service is Saturday in Louisville
By Melody K. Smith and Gregg Brekke | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE – After a lifetime of service and ministry, Lew Lancaster completed his baptism on Feb. 13, 2018, surrounded by his loved ones.
Lancaster was born in Clinton, South Carolina, but spent part of his childhood in China. He was a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia and was ordained to ministry by Holston Presbytery. In addition, he served in the Navy and as an assistant pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, prior to serving in the mission field.
In 1952, Lancaster and his late wife, Virginia, were appointed evangelistic missionaries, part of the first group to become official cooperating missionaries with the United Church of Christ in Japan. They were stationed most of their service in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku. Together they served 21 years as missionaries and returned to the United States where Lancaster was tasked to form the ecumenical office for the southern Presbyterian denomination, and later served in the same office in Louisville after reunion.
Robina Winbush, director of ecumenical and agency relations in the Office of the General Assembly, was hired by Lancaster in 1988. “Lew was committed to ecumenism,” she said, noting the many ways he contributed to the global ecumenical movement, including involvement with World Council of Churches commissions and the World Council of Reformed Churches.
“Lew was always seeking to make a difference,” she said of his active post-retirement work with Habitat for Humanity. “He was a pastoral presence . . . but he was impatient with injustice and foolishness in the church. He will be greatly missed.”
Lancaster worked alongside his second wife, Kathy (who died in 2016), for 31 years as they stood for social justice and civil liberties in arenas within and outside the church.
“One thing I have always appreciated about Lew Lancaster was his passion to share the gifts of the ecumenical movement with emerging generations,” said the Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick, former stated clerk of the PC(USA). “I was with a struggling ecumenical agency in Houston in my early 30s when Lew made a special effort to bring together young ecumenists in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and created a community that was life-giving. Lew offered great inspiration to those of us who were new in the ecumenical movement, and he continued to do that throughout his life.”
Lancaster’s life will be celebrated at Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 3, with the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Campbell presiding.
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