RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Norman Jameson has been recommended as the new editor of the Biblical Recorder, the North Carolina Baptist state newspaper.
Jameson, the executive leader for public relations for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, met with a search committee from the paper's board of directors for a final round of interviews May 24 and was unanimously recommended for the position. The recommendation must be approved by the board of directors, who will meet June 7.
If approved, Jameson will replace Tony Cartledge, 55, who has announced plans to become a professor at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C. Cartledge will remain editor through July 31.
Joe Babb, the chairman of the search committee, said Jameson is well-qualified for the position.
“We're pleased that he will be part of the Biblical Recorder team,” Babb said. “We feel that his knowledge of Baptist life in North Carolina is well rounded and equal to the task.”
Jameson would assume the newspaper helm at a time of unrest in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Cartledge, in an editorial announcing his departure, said “a discordant undercurrent hinders our work, our growth, and our spirit.” The convention's drift to a more conservative stance played a part in his decision to leave, he said, although it was not the deciding factor.
Last year, North Carolina Baptists defeated a bylaw change that would have given convention-related institutions such as the Biblical Recorder more influence over the appointment of trustees and directors.
Jameson, 54, was raised in a small Wisconsin farming community. He graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph before being named feature editor of Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention's news service, in 1977.
In 1982, impatient with “writing about what others were doing,” Jameson went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He finished his degree while working as associate editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger.
Jameson then became communications director for Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina in 1987, a position he held for 12 years. He later worked as a public relations consultant for North Carolina's Baptist State Convention, which ultimately asked him to design and lead its public relations office.
“Simply, I feel prepared for — but humbled by — this call by the search committee to join a line of Biblical Recorder editors who have distinguished themselves with insightful observance, reporting and commentary on Baptist life nationally throughout the Recorder's history,” Jameson said.
Jameson and his wife, Sue Ellen, have three adult children and are members of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.
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