World Church - In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. January 27, 1969 [73-19]
At Home
A Minneapolis, Minn., anti-smut campaign has run into a problem with the fact that a film depicting the evils of pornography has been ruled "too smutty" for local audiences. The clean literature group, called Citizens for Youth Protection, received the film from an organization in Los Angeles. It was shown twice before CYP decided it was unfit for public viewing.
Prize money totaling $800 is being offered by the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem for a hymn to be introduced during its 1971 Centennial Year. Entries and requests for more detailed information should be sent to: Hymn Contest, 1241 Moffit Ave., Bethlehem, Penna. 18018.
The Rt. Rev. Henry I. Louttit, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Florida, has named the Rev. Theodore R. Gibson as the first Negro canon in the Diocese. Canon Gibson received the new recognition because of his "leadership in the cause of justice and freedom in human relations."
The Diocese of Michigan reports that it: has made deposits totaling $10, 000 in a bank owned and operated by members of the Negro community in Detroit.
Membership in the Episcopal Church remained about the same during 1968 with an increase of one-tenth of 1 percent, according to the Episcopal Church Annual published by Morehouse-Barlow. At the same time, the Gallup Poll reported that Church attendance in the United States declined slightly, although it remains at a higher level than before World War II. Fifty million Americans go to Church on Sunday, the poll said.
Dr. Peter Day, national Ecumenical Officer of the Episcopal Church, will appear on the NBC television program, "Frontiers of Faith, " on Sunday, February 23. The subject of the program is "Christian Unity."
The Rt. Rev. John Seville Higgins, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, has appointed Kenneth A. Lagerquist, of Seekonk, Mass., as chairman of the 1969 Episcopal Charities Fund Appeal.
Ecumenical
Edward F. Tablak, a business man of San Jose, Calif., has been installed as the new president of the National Council of Presbyterian Men. He succeeds Dr. Dwight C. Hanna, plastic surgeon of Pittsburgh, Penna.
A joint committee representing the American Baptist Convention and the Church of the Brethren has issued a statement saying that organic union of the two denominations is not a wise goal at this time. The statement reaffirmed concern for ultimate union but "in the context of fuller Christian unity." The two Churches have been engaged in unity discussions since 1961.
The Sunday offering may no longer be a part of the worship service when the "checkless, cashless society" comes into being in the 1980's, Lutherans have been told. Church members, instead, will make their contributions through computerized fund transfer systems of local banks.
The Rev. Efrain Santiago, 38-year-old minister of the Methodist Wesleyan Church, has been appointed to head the Social Services Department of Puerto Rico. For the past ten years he has been pastor of a Church in San Juan.
Tennessee Williams, 54, well-known playwright, became a Roman Catholic after a near-fatal case of influenza. A former Episcopalian, Mr. Williams was rebaptized at his own request by Father Joseph LeRoy, S. J., of St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church, Key West, Fla.
The National Cathedral in Washington, D. C., is the first Church in the world to install permanent lighting for color television broadcasting. The new lighting system will provide for expanded coverage of the many special programs and services held at the Cathedral.
Overseas
The Archbishop of Canterbury will be a visitor in the Caribbean area when he makes an official visitation to every Diocese of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, which is under his jurisdiction. During his month-long tour, beginning February 21, the Primate will also visit Puerto Rico, a missionary district of the American Episcopal Church.
Mrs. Martin Luther King, widow of the slain American civil rights leader, will deliver a sermon in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on March 16. Mrs. King will be the first woman in its 1300-year history to occupy the pulpit during an official service at St. Paul's.
For the first time in its 170-year history the Anglican Church Missionary Society has chosen a woman to be its president. She is Miss Diana Reader Harris, headmistress of a girl's school in Dorset, England. She succeeds Sr. Kenneth Grubb.
Formal proposals to set the date for the celebration of Christmas on a fixed Sunday will be made to Parliament by a member of the House of Commons. Roger Gresham Cooke, Conservative, deplores the "industrial disruption" which Christmas causes and proposes that Christmas be celebrated on the nearest Sunday after December 25.
The Rev. Canon Frederick A. McDonald has been transferred to Geneva, Switzerland, to serve as a representative of the Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, Deputy for Overseas Relations of the Episcopal Church. Canon McDonald has served in European appointments before and returns after duty in Zambia.
The Rev. Canon T. D. Somerville, of Toronto, Canada, has been elected Coadjutor Bishop of New Westminster, B.C. Since 1966 he has served as director of planning for the Anglican Church of Canada.
Queen Elizabeth intends to take Holy Communion with the Scottish Presbyterians when she attends the Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh in May. It will be the first time an English monarch, who also is the titular head of the Church of England, has taken part in a business session of the Church of Scotland in 400 years.
The Rev. Christopher Woods of Edinburgh, Scotland, has been appointed to develop closer relations between the Church of England and ;the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church and the Lusitanian Church of Portugal.