(RNS) A church music professor will become the new executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, housed at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
Deborah Carlton Loftis, visiting professor of church music at the seminary, will start the post on Nov. 1. The Rev. Carl P. Daw Jr., an Episcopal priest, will retire on that date after serving in the position for 13 years.
The society, which has been housed at the Boston University School of Theology, will move to the seminary where Loftis has been teaching.
“We are excited about the Hymn Society finding a home on BTSR’s campus and even more excited about keeping Deb Loftis connected to our seminary,” said seminary President Ron Crawford. “This partnership will prove exceedingly beneficial to our students and to the larger Christian community.”
Loftis has served as a contributing editor to “The Hymn,” the society’s journal, since 1979. She previously taught at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, and was the music librarian at the Birmingham Public Library. Loftis has served as a minister of music, and is a former moderator of the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Virginia Baptist Women in Ministry.
Loftis, a member of the board of directors of Associated Baptist Press, said she hopes to help the society increase membership and donations.
“I want to help congregations understand how singing and music help form faith and strengthen their community,” she told ABP.