Bishop Tony Palmer, Champion of Unity, Dies in Motorcycle Accident

4:00PM EDT 7/21/2014 JENNIFER LECLAIRE

Bishop Tony Palmer passed away after a motorcycle accident. (YouTube)

Bishop Tony Palmer, a South African Bishop with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, has passed away after a motorcycle accident.

Palmer gained worldwide media attention in January after Pope Francis sent a special envoy to a Charismatic Evangelical Leadership Conference Kenneth Copeland hosted.

"Tony Palmer, the charismatic young preacher who enjoyed a friendship with Pope Francis, has apparently died in a motorcycle accident," Kathy Schiffer reported on her Seasons of Grace blog. "Not a Catholic, Palmer was bishop in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, a group that broke away from the Anglican Church and considered itself part of the Convergence Movement."

Palmer presented a video message from the pope that went massively viral at the Copeland-hosted conference. The message centered on unity among Catholics and Protestants. Copeland prayed for the pope and sent a message of his own back to Francis.

Catholics and evangelicals alike are mourning Palmer's loss.

"I never personally met Bishop Tony Palmer. However, I look forward to spending an eternity in the full communion of God's love with him. I appreciated his Christian courage and felt that his efforts were prophetic," wrote Keith Fournier, founder and chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance.

"He wrote his life—and lived his ministry—with broad brushstrokes, seeking to reveal the fullness of God's loving plan for the Body of Christ, the healing of the divisions and wounds which separate those of us who share the name Christian."

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Tony Palmer dies in a motorcyle accident

Evangelical pastor, close friend to Pope, dies after motorcycle crash

romereports

Published on Jul 21, 2014

http://en.romereports.com Tony Palmer used his iPhone to record a message from the Pope to the Evangelical community.

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Auburn teacher ID’d as El Dorado County motorcycle-crash victim

1/12/12

Vickie Altman would brighten a room, loved to teach, ride bikes By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer Courtesy AUBURN CALIF - Vickie Altman is being remembered as a teacher with a gift for connecting with people of all ages. She died Sunday in a motorcycle crash on Salmon Falls Road.

AUBURN CA - In a state of shock and grief following the death of a popular teacher, students, staff and parents at an Orangevale school are now finding ways to honor the memory of Auburn’s Vickie Altman.

Altman, 52, was identified by the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office as the rider killed in a motorcycle crash Sunday on rural, winding Salmon Falls Road.

Altman had taught kindergarten and 7th and 8th grade classes at Orangevale Seventh-day Adventist School. Before taking that job, she had worked at Pine Hills Adventist Academy in Auburn from 2004 to 2006.

On Thursday, Altman’s regular parking space at the school was marked with floral tributes, balloons and notes. Inside, a parent had drawn a portrait of Altman and many of Orangevale’s 100 students have written notes around it expressing their feelings about the loss of a special teacher.

Brad Davis, Orangevale principal, said a candlelight vigil was held Sunday night. The school closed on Monday and classes began again Tuesday.

“She related with everybody, from grandparents to little kids,” Davis said. “There was hardly a time when Vickie was not chatting with someone about something meaningful.”

Out of school, Altman’s passions included riding motorcycles both off-road and on the street.

California Highway Patrol Officer Gilbert Lee said Altman’s bike left the road on narrow Salmon Falls Road, just north of Pilot View Drive Sunday afternoon.

The bike struck a telephone pole and Altman, an Auburn resident, was ejected from the motorcycle, Lee said. Altman was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

A mother of two, Altman had lived in Washington and Oregon as well as California. She graduated from Walla Walla College in Washington state in 1983 with a bachelor of science degree in elementary education. She completed a master’s degree in educational leadership through California State University, Sacramento in 2008.

On the Orangevale Seventh-day Adventist School website, among pictures of Altman smiling with students in the classroom, she is quoted as saying “Love what you do and know that it matters … what could be more fun?”

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday in Gracepoint Adventist Church, 3500 Sunset Blvd., in Rocklin.

“She was an upbeat person and the world got brighter wherever she was,” Davis said.

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Many Rally To Support Boy's Flag Display

Motorcycle Riders Back Denair Teen

KSBW.com
updated less than 1 minute ago 2010-11-15T23:15:17
DENAIR, Calif. — KSBW.com

A 13-year-old Stanislaus County boy at the center of a flag controversy got a big show of support Monday as many people rallied to his side.

Cody Alicea was earlier told by Denair Middle School officials that he could not ride to school with a U.S. flag on his bike. The story has gained national attention, from Rush Limbaugh to the Drudge Report.

The school changed its mind, and now Alicea can display the stars and stripes.

When he rode from his home to school on Monday, he was followed by a parade of people on motorcycles. A military jet flyover was also expected.

"I'd just like to say thanks for the support," Alicea said before his ride.

Officials at the school told Alicea not to display the flag, citing safety concerns. Some students had complained about the display.

Denair Unified School District Superintendent Edward Parraz said the campus recently experienced some racial tension. He said some students got out of hand on Cinco de Mayo. He said some students displayed the Mexican flag, while others displayed American flags.

Parraz said he got calls from halfway around the world about the flag controversy. Some soldiers in Afghanistan called to complain.

Alicea said he was surprised at the attention.

"This is big," Alicea said. "I didn't think it'd get this big."

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Adventist Pastor/Biker Reaches Out at Motorcycle Event

Special edition of Steps to Christ handed out at Sturgis rally

BY MARK A. KELLNER, news editor

Hundreds of participants at the 2010 Sturgis motorcycle rally, held in and around Sturgis, South Dakota, in mid-August, could have collected any number of souvenirs, not to mention photos of activity at what is believed to be the nation’s largest biker event, with an estimated 600,000 
participants.

But along with whatever else they took home from the event, which celebrated its seventieth anniversary this year, about 1,200 bikers packed something else in their saddlebags: a special edition of Steps to Christ, Ellen G. White’s book on developing a relationship with God. The biker-themed book, titled Steps to Jesus: The Ride of Your Life, features a picture of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with an air cover on which a picture of Jesus is painted.

Combine the photo of a Harley with a stylized book logo on the cover, says Tom Hughes, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and motorcycle enthusiast from Zanesville and Newark, Ohio, and you’ve got something a biker won’t easily throw away. The 1,200 or so copies he and others handed out during the Sturgis rally are destined to be read, he maintains.

STURGIS WITNESS: From left, Adventist pastors Clarence McKey, Tom Hughes, and Brad Traxler are shown during the 2010 motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. Working with local members and others, the pastors helped distribute approximately 1,200 copies of an edition of Steps to Christ aimed at bikers.

Hughes, 60, knows his bikes—and his bikers. He rode his own Harley the 1,300 miles from Ohio to South Dakota, and a similar distance back, in order to witness to people. A member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, he worked with church-owned Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA) to develop the special giveaway book.

Hughes collaborated with RHPA executive Howard Scoggins, himself a motorcyclist. Other Steps to Christ editions are available for distribution to truckers and NASCAR fans. More than 43,500 copies of the biker edition have been printed so far, a total expected to more than triple over the next year, Scoggins said.

Why reach out to bikers? “Ninety percent of bikers are men, and 70 percent or more of them are unchurched,” Hughes said. “I just found a great big old fishing hole” in going to motorcycle rallies to witness, he added.

Hughes said bikers who travel to events such as the Sturgis rally are “looking to find an exhilarating experience—what they really need to find is Jesus.” He spoke of witnessing to one heavily tattooed biker who remonstrated that “God wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

The Adventist pastor said he assured the biker that God would very much want to reach out to him, and moments later the two were praying for the biker to receive Christ as Savior.

Hughes did not undertake his mission without help: the Ohio Conference has previously voted to designate him as an official “Motorcycle Evangelist,” and allows him to go to rallies such as the Sturgis event and a similar one in Daytona Beach, Florida. In South Dakota, Hughes said, he stayed with church members Raylene and Mike Connelly and worked with pastors Brad Traxler from Spearfish, South Dakota, and Clarence McKey from Rapid City, South Dakota, as well as independent Adventist evangelist Jim Wood. Traxler and McKey told Hughes they’ll continue the book distribution in coming years, he said.

As for Hughes, whose work has been featured on the church’s Hope Channel television programming, he said he would like to see pastors nationwide use the book to reach out to bikers, either one-on-one or by placing copies in hotels and restaurants during rallies. He also has a Web site, www.biblebiker.com, that details the outreach.

And while it was exhausting to work “12- to 14-hour days” during Sturgis and then ride 1,300 miles home “in 110-degree heat,” Hughes said the effort was worthwhile, for the simple “thrill of sharing Christ and seeing a biker come to Jesus.”

Source: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3737
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