Minnesota death certificate

* Launching the third building by a master of American architecture, Robert H. Schuller broke ground March 11 for construction of a $20 million International Center for Possibility Thinking at his Crystal Cathedral grounds in Garden Grove, California. The new center, to be dedicated about 2005, was designed by architect Richard Meier, whose buildings include the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum in Atlanta and Jubilee Church under construction in Rome. Planned as a hospitality and visitors' center, the center will be circular, complementing the rectangular reach of the Tower of Hope, designed by Richard Neutra (1968) and the triangular motif of Philip Johnson's Crystal Cathedral (1980).

* A veteran Southern Baptist publicist, Wesley M. "Pat" Patrillo, will oversee the communications programs of the National Council of Churches as an associate general secretary, starting April 16. Currently North American representative for Hong Kong Baptist University, Patrillo earlier worked for Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

* Hollyn Hollman, a litigation associate at a Washington, D.C., law firm, became the new general counsel in March for the Baptist Joint Committee, which monitors religious liberty and church-state issues. Hollman replaces Melissa Rogers, who had left to direct the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

* Elias Chacour, a Roman Catholic priest from Galilee, has been named as winner of the 18th Niwano Peace Prize. The prize, which includes a certificate, a medal and $172,000, will be presented to 61-year-old Chacour on May 10 at a ceremony in Tokyo. The foundation was lavish in its praise for the Palestinian priest, expressing "its great esteem for his dedication to preach through the means of education" referring to the educational institutions where young Jews, Muslims and Christians are taught together. Winner in 1994 of the World Methodist Peace Award, Chacour is known for his robust defense of peace and justice in the Holy Land. His book Blood Brothers has been translated into 28 languages.

* Winthrop S. Hudson, 89, author of a widely used text, Religion in America, and 15 other books, died February 20 in Rochester, Minnesota. The church historian, ordained a Baptist minister in 1937, was a professor of history at Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological School in Rochester, New York, from 1948 to 1980 after teaching three years at the University of Chicago. Among his other titles were Baptist Convictions, American Protestantism and Nationalism and Religion in America.

* Jesse H. Ziegler, 88, who helped the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) expand beyond mainline Protestantism to Catholic and evangelical membership and prod seminaries to increase women and minorities on the campuses, died March 7 in Dayton, Ohio. Ziegler was associate director of the accrediting agency 1959-1966 and executive director 1966-1980. Before the ATS posts, he taught 18 years at Church of the Brethren-related Bethany Theological Seminary.