Thelma Battle Buckner, a long-serving pastor and singer, known for her charitable work in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, died at age 89 after a battle with congestive heart failure.

A native of Mississippi, Buckner served as pastor of Gospel Temple Church of God In Christ of St. Paul, Minnesota, for 15 years, later becoming pastor emeritus of the congregation.

Labeled by one local media outlet as a “‘granny’ to many” due to her extensive efforts to help disadvantaged children, which included a daycare and a camp, Buckner died on June 11, with a celebration of life service being held at Gospel Temple Church on Friday.

Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter told Twin Cities Pioneer Press that she fondly remembered the quilting shop that Buckner launched in the area.

“When my father-in-law was in his senior years, in his twilight years, she quilted, as a ministry to him and gave him a gift of a quilt that he cherished and that we now keep and cherish,” said Carter.

According to an obituary emailed to The Christian Post by a representative of Gospel Temple Church, Buckner was born in Mississippi in 1932, being one of 13 children.

She graduated from Saints Industrial Library School in Lexington, Mississippi, in 1949 and married Arthur Buckner the following year. They separated 10 years after that.

Buckner developed a prolific music ministry with her family, eventually winning the 1989 Minnesota Music Award for Best Female Gospel Vocalist.

The musical tradition continues in her descendants, as one of her grandchildren, Arthur “L.A.” Buckner, topped the iTunes jazz chart last year.

Later she became a licensed missionary through the Minnesota Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of COGIC and by COGIC International. In 2002, Buckner received a doctorate of divinity from the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology.

After her own children had moved out of her house, Buckner became a licensed daycare provider and served as a foster parent, eventually opening the Buckner Emergency Shelter, based at her own home.

According to her obituary, Buckner leaves behind eight children, 28 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild, as well as three surviving siblings.

A Muslim couple is suing a Chicago-area school and alleging that a former history teacher helped convert their daughter to Christianity.

The federal lawsuit against Community Unit District 300 in Algonquin, Ill., alleges violations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The suit by Yosuf Chaudhry and Amena Alvi alleges that a former Jacobs High School teacher, Pierre Thorsen, gave their daughter a New International Version Study Bible and introduced her to other Christians.

“It’s derailed our whole life,” Alvi said of the daughter’s conversion. “It’s derailed her whole life.”

Their daughter, now 17, graduated this year. She told them in 2019 that she had converted to Christianity. Much of the discussion about Christianity reportedly took place within a Christian club at the school.

They reviewed their daughter’s cell phone records to determine what had happened. (She is known as B.D. in the lawsuit.)

“What we found were numerous texts, emails and phone calls made over several months with complete adult strangers which discussed her conversion to Christianity and challenges to hide and lie about her new faith, how they would take her in and provide a place to live if she were disowned and kicked out by her parents and even seeded the idea that she could legally emancipate herself to live her new life freely as a Christian before she turned 18,” the couple wrote to the school board.

Communication between their daughter and the other Christians lasted several months, the couple said.

“They have implied in their communications (with our daughter) that we would disown, mistreat or even kill our own child because of her conversion to Christianity. I cannot tell you how offensive and hurtful this is,” the couple wrote.

Their daughter still lives with them. (Stories of Muslim parents disowning children for converting to Christianity are common outside the United States.)

Thorsen, who declined comments, was a popular teacher at the school. In 2019, more than 4,000 people signed an online petition supporting Thorsen for “speaking about religion in a historical context.” The petition labeled him a “beloved History teacher.”