Newsmakers in Brief
Episcopal News Service. August 12, 2004 [081204-1-A]
GOING FOR GOLD IN ATHENS ... Swimmer DIANA MUNZ, who grew up at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, will be among athletes competing in the Olympic Games opening tomorrow (August 13) in Athens. Munz won a gold medal and silver medal in Australia in Olympic competition, according to reports.
Also, from Ohio's Kenyon College -- founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop PHILANDER CHASE -- swimmers ANDREJS DUDA (Class of 2006), AGNESE OZOLINA (Class of 2004) and MICHELLE ENGELSMAN (Class of 2001) will swim at this summer's games in Athens. Duda and Ozolina will swim for the Latvian team, while Engelsman will compete for the Australian team.
ENS reported August 10 [http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_48147_ENG_HTM.htm] that Jacksonville, Florida, Episcopal High School graduate JORGE OLIVER will swim on the Puerto Rican team, scheduled to compete in the 200-meter individual medley August 18.
And in New York, BRIAN COOMBS -- a former Olympian for the Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta placing 5th in the 400-meter semi-finals -- has been appointed assistant mail center manager at the Episcopal Church Center. "We know Brian will add 'speed' to our delivery process," says the Church Center's ERIC WYNTER, manager, mailing center administration.
A NEW BIOGRAPHY ON DESMOND TUTU is the writing project before JOHN ALLEN, director of communication since 2001 at Wall Street's Trinity Church, New York. Allen -- who served Tutu as press secretary during Tutu's final years as Archbishop of Cape Town, and as Tutu chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission -- concludes his position at Trinity Church on August 31 in order to spend nine months writing his new book, due out in 2006 from Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster. Allen guided Trinity Church's communications efforts through the devastation brought to Lower Manhattan by the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. With best wishes from colleagues across the Episcopal Church and around the Anglican Communion, Allen and his wife, LIZ, will return to Cape Town to reside after departing New York.
MINNESOTA PRIEST HOWARD ANDERSON TO LEAD NEW CATHEDRAL COLLEGE
The Rev. Dr. HOWARD R. ANDERSON, longtime rector of St. Paul's Church in Duluth, Minnesota, has been named first warden of the new Cathedral College, announced August 6 by Washington National Cathedral as the merger of its educational programs and those of the on-site College of Preachers.
"The Cathedral College will carry forward the 75-year history of the College of Preachers as a conference center for clergy and laity with emphasis on teaching effective communication of the Gospel through preaching," according to a Cathedral news release. The College will simultaneously carry forward the Cathedral's regular series of lectures and talks on biblical studies, theology and spirituality.
Anderson is well-known and highly respected in the Diocese of Minnesota. Before his 10-year ministry at St. Paul's Church -- featured in a national Episcopal video program as one of the denomination's leading "thriving and healthy congregations," -- Anderson also served the Diocese of Minnesota as stewardship and development officer from 1988 to 1994. Previously he served the Diocese of North Dakota as a program officer from 1984 to 1988.
Anderson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, where he also earned a Master's Degree. His undergraduate study was completed at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota. He was ordained to the priesthood by Minnesota Bishop James Jelinek in 1993.
Anderson's final Sunday at St. Paul's Church will be November 7. Anderson and his wife, LINDA, will reside in the "president and warden's house" on the Cathedral Close.
In his new role, Anderson succeeds the Rev. Canon JAMES C. FENHAGEN II, who has served as warden of the College of Preachers since 2001.
TARGETING ASTHMA, MANHATTANVILLE CONGREGATION HOSTS N.Y. SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON
The Rev. EARLE KOOPERKAMP, rector of St. Mary's Church, Manhattanville, in the Diocese of New York, joined parishioners and leaders of Upper Manhattan Together (UMT, the local Metro branch of the Industrial Areas Foundation) in welcoming New York Senator HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON to the parish on August 10 for an interfaith rally targeting improvements in local public housing.
Focus of the rally was reduction of asthma caused by spreading mold and fungus, and eradication of disease caused spread by vermin. The issues are at the center of advocacy by UMT as a coalition of churches and synagogues as partner houses of prayer. Representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York joined the gathering.
Clinton concurred with residents' concerns and pledged to address the issues during an August 11 meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Facts presented at the gathering include the following from Metro IAF.
What UMT knows about asthma in New York City:
* Fully 25% of all children in central Harlem have asthma.
* About 700,000 adults in New York City have been diagnosed with asthma at some time in their lives.
* Citywide, 17% of children under 17, or 300,000 children, have had
asthma at some time in their lives.
* Certain neighborhoods -- especially the South Bronx, East and Central Harlem, and Central Brooklyn -- have much higher rates of childhood asthma than others.
* About 260,000 adult New Yorkers had an asthma episode in the past year.
* Citywide, children miss 11 more days of school per year than their peers in the suburbs and upstate.
* Asthma is more likely to occur among Latino and African-American New Yorkers and in poorer neighborhoods.
* Exposure to rodents, roaches, mold and mildew trigger attacks in children with asthma.
* Children in poor neighborhoods are almost 3 times as likely to be hospitalized for asthma as those in wealthier neighborhoods.
RWANDA'S ARCHBISHOP KOLINI TO SPEAK IN GEORGIA
The Most Rev. EMMANUEL KOLINI, Anglican Archbishop of Rwanda, is scheduled to speak Friday, August 13, in Flowery Branch, Georgia, the Gainesville Times newspaper has reported.
Spiritual leader for Rwanda's 180,000 Anglicans, Kolini joined with the Most Rev. MOSES TAY, Archbishop of South East Asia, in 2000 to co-found the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). The archbishops made headlines at the time for consecrating two bishops as missionaries to the United States separate and apart from the national Episcopal Church.
Kolini is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Holy Trinity, a congregation said to be aligned with the AMiA. The congregation meets in the chapel at Memorial Park South, 4121 Falcon Parkway, Flowery Branch, Georgia.
Kolini, who is president of the Rwandan Interfaith Council, was born in Uganda and ordained in the Congo. He established a residence and school for orphans of Uganda's 1964 civil war. He went to Rwanda after the 1994 genocide in that country and in 1997 was named archbishop, one of 38 Primates in the Anglican Communion.