WALKER, Alan (Edgar) 1911-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born June 4, 1911, in Sydney, Australia; died January 29, 2003, in Sydney, Australia. Minister, missionary, administrator, and author. Walker was ordained a Methodist minister in 1934; he filled the remainder of his life with a remarkable number of accomplishments. Walker ministered to coal miners during World War II. After the war he directed what is now the Wesley Mission in Sydney, expanding it into one of the world's largest Methodist missions. In the 1960s Walker led missions all over the world, especially enjoying his time in Fiji. In 1978 he was appointed the director of world evangelism for the World Methodist Council, a position from which he retired in 1988. Walker's individual achievements included the founding in 1963 of Lifeline, a telephone counseling service that became international in scope, and the founding of what is now the Alan Walker College of Evangelism, a school designed to train ministers for Pacific Asia. He presented the television program I Challenge the Minister, in which he fielded questions from a live audience. From the 1940s through the 1990s he was religion editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. Walker was a traditional Methodist and preached against alcohol, gambling, and promiscuity. He was a longtime pacifist who also worked diligently on behalf of human rights and racial equality. Walker also wrote more than fifty books, including Breakthrough: Rediscovering the Holy Spirit, The New Evangelism, Life in the Holy Spirit, and Try God. Walker shared with his wife the Methodist Peace Prize. He was created a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in 1981, but the title Walker preferred, he once said, was "Reverend."

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Henderson, Harold, Reach for the World: The AlanWalker Story, Discipleship Resources, 1981.

periodicals

Australian (Sydney, Australia), January 31, 2003, obituary by Vanessa Walker, p. 10.

Daily Telegraph, January 31, 2003, p. 31.

Times (London, England), February 18, 2003, p. 31.