[MAY 19, 2017—CINCINNATI, OHIO] As president of the United Church of God, an International Association (UCG), I offer the collective sympathy and condolences of our fellowship to members of Roderick C. Meredith’s family and also to the ministers and members of the Living Church of God (LCG). Dr. Meredith, a long-time minister and LCG presiding evangelist, died in the late evening of May 18. He was 86 and is survived by six children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Gerald Weston has succeeded him as the presiding evangelist of LCG.

Many ministers and members in UCG who attended one of the Ambassador College campuses in years past, took one or more classes taught by Dr. Meredith. Like many others in our fellowship, I had deep respect for Dr. Meredith. In the course of our current fellowships we personally met together on two occasions (shortly after the death of Dibar Apartian, another long-time minister, and later following the death of Dr. Meredith’s wife, Sheryl) at the Living Church of God’s facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. We also conversed on occasion by phone and e-mail. The first Charlotte meeting was led by Dennis Luker, a former colleague of Dr. Meredith, who later died in 2013 while serving as president of UCG. Peter Eddington, our operation manager of Media and Communications Services, also took part in that meeting.

Through the years, Dr. Meredith demonstrated a powerful influence and a singular commitment to applying what he understood, including the role of the Church in proclaiming the gospel and announcing the coming Kingdom of God. He served in numerous administrative, ministerial and faculty positions in our prior fellowship of the Worldwide Church of God. He wrote multiple dozens of articles for The Plain Truth and other church publications before leaving that fellowship and subsequently founding LCG in 1998.

Dr. Meredith certainly led a full life of service in the ministry, and many in the fellowship of the United Church of God remember well the years of dedicated service that Dr. Meredith provided while part of the Worldwide Church of God and later as the leader of LCG. I encourage our members to please remember Dr. Meredith and his family—as well as ministers, members and families within the Living Church of God. He now rests and awaits the hope of us all—eternal life in the service of God the Father and Jesus Christ in the coming Kingdom of God.

Richard Ames, LCG evangelist and brother-in-law to Dr. Meredith, will conduct Dr. Meredith’s funeral, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 28. Details are pending.