A Brief Biography
The Reverend W. Burney Overton
June 13, 1916 – December 16, 1998
Wilson Burney Overton was born in 1916 in Alabama and grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee. He often talked about the influence the Great Depression had on his formation as a teenager and young adult. He graduated from Tusculum College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1942, and served as the pastor of several parishes in New York and Tennessee before making the decision to focus his ministry in pastoral counseling. After completing a training program in Knoxville, TN, under the direction of Dr. William Crane, he began working at the Pastoral Counseling Institute (PCI) in Athens, GA in 1968. During his several years of full-time counseling at PCI, Burney began to develop and establish the Relational CommunicationTM Program. In 1971 he joined the staff at the Institute of Church Renewal (ICR) in Atlanta. After several years at ICR, he was named the Director of the Counseling Center at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
In 1981, at the invitation and support of the Rev. Tom Are, the Senior Pastor at Shallowford Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Burney established Shallowford Training and Counseling Service (STACS), where he could expand his concept of “grace theology” and offer the Relational Communication TM Program. Burney served as clergy on the staff of Shallowford Church as the Director of STACS, with a full schedule of counseling, group facilitation, workshops, retreat leadership and service to the Greater Atlanta Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA), until his retirement in the spring of 1998.
Throughout his work as a pastor and counselor, Burney focused particularly on the process of communication, observing how communication between people serves either to build or block relationships. Realizing that relationships are the key to healthy and enriched lives, and that effective communication is the key to satisfying and fulfilling relationships, Burney developed a program he named Relational Communication TM in order to teach others the principles and skills necessary for effective communication.
In the mid-1980’s Burney made an intentional shift in his language from talking about “grace theology” to talking about “the unconditional love of God,” and expanded his Relational CommunicationTM program based in the theology of the unconditional love of God. Burney believed deeply that God loved him with no conditions attached to that love, and therefore, he was called to love others with no conditions attached. Burney not only taught the unconditional love of God, he lived it out. The experience of being loved unconditionally by him was saving grace for many who were blessed to know Burney and build a relationship with him.
Burney was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the spring of 1998 and decided to close STACS soon after. Fighting the extreme fatigue brought on by the disease, he continued to write his “Burney’s Papers,” sharing with us his experience of dying, and to meet with people to offer his wisdom and support until several weeks before he died. Burney preached his last sermon in the All Saints’ Day Service of Healing at Shallowford Presbyterian Church the first of November, based on the text of his favorite Scripture passage, the 23rd Psalm. Surrounded by his wife, Miriam, and their children, Burney died in his home in the early afternoon of December 16, 1998. He lived fully, wholly, completely – “eternally.” Burney’s life is honored when we love each other as God loved him, and he loved us – unconditionally.