InterVarsity Press Releases C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical Rediscovery of the University
News Release
For Immediate Release
(Westmont IL) – C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical Rediscovery of the University was launched this past Sunday at a ceremony at Philadelphia’s historic Union League. In the Lincoln Room Yvonne Woods, wife of Stacey Woods and a sprightly 91 years, signed books for the thirty-five who attended the ceremony, as did the author A. Donald MacLeod, Research Professor at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Toronto.
In her remarks Yvonne said how delighted she was that her late husband’s memory would be kept alive by this book. Stacey was the founder of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the United States in 1939-1940 while he was serving as General Secretary of the Canadian Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. He went on to be general secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, founded in 1947. For a time he held all three positions concurrently.
“Stacey initiated a whole new approach toward the university campus,” MacLeod stated. “He was a pivotal figure in the revival of evangelicalism after the Second World War. Few significant figures in the evangelical world in the following two decades were not influenced by the movement. He had an uncanny ability to discern the potential of leadership and allow women and men to exercise their gifts.”
Dr. Phil Ryken, Yvonne Woods’ pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, asked how many in the room had either attended Urbana or had been members of an InterVarsity chapter while in college. Most of those in the room raised their hands. “That’s an indication of how Stacey Woods touched your life,” he added. The publication of C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical Rediscovery of the University was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and the quadrennial IFES World Assembly, meeting in Ancaster, Ontario, July 11-19.
Free copies of the book will be distributed to all the 648 delegates, coming from 153 countries, thanks to the generosity of the Tyndale House Foundation of Wheaton, Illinois. For more information: A. Donald MacLeod, Research Professor of Church History, Tyndale Theological Seminary, Toronto, ON M2M 4B3 Website: www.adonaldmacleod.com