Church News Briefs
Diocesan Press Service. June 28, 1974 [74196]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- The Rev. Dr. Gerald F. Moede, a staff executive with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, has been elected general secretary of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU). Dr. Moede, a United Methodist and a 44-year-old native of Wisconsin, will succeed the Rev. Dr. Paul A. Crow, Jr., who has resigned to take a position with the Disciples of Christ. The Rev. Dr. John F. Satterwhite of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was elected associate general secretary. COCU, founded in 1962, is a group of nine church communions, including the Episcopal Church, working for church union.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A sub-committee of the Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church is studying ways of strengthening the provinces or other regional structures of the Episcopal Church. The sub-committee, which will meet in September, welcomes suggestions and recommendations from members of the church. Suggestions should be sent to: Charles M. Crump, Secretary, Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church, Suite 2610, 100 North Main Building, Memphis, Tenn. 38103.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Dr. William L. Weller, an Episcopal clergyman and scholar of classical rabbinic texts, was recently named executive director of the newly-established Office of Jewish - Christian Relations of the National Council of Churches (NCC). Dr. Weller comes to the NCC from the University of Muenster, West Germany, where he has taught and worked with other scholars on a study of the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. The new NCC office was established in February in response to a need for improved contacts between Christians and Jews.
LONDON, England -- Bishop John Howe, 54-year-old Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), has been reappointed by the Standing Committee of the ACC to the position more than a year before his term of office was due to expire. The bishop had been considered by some Anglicans a strong candidate to succeed Arch- bishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury as Primate of All England, but the appointment went to Archbishop Donald Coggan of York. Bishop Howe's reappointment as ACC Secretary General, according to some sources, seems to rule out any prospect of his now being named to succeed Dr. Coggan at York.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Bishop J. Brooke Mosley has submitted his resignation as president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, effective the first week of September, 1974. His resignation came following a report by a seminary review committee which indicated its belief that "new leadership " would be required for the seminary in the near future. Bishop Mosley, 58, president of Union since 1970, was formerly Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware and Deputy for Jurisdictions of the Executive Council staff.
BOSTON, Mass. -- Bishop Malcolm E. Peabody, retired head of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York from 1942 to 1960, died here on June 20 at the age of 86. The bishop was the son of the late Dr. Endicott Peabody, headmaster of the Groton School and one of the most influential educators in U.S. history. He was the father of former Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody. In addition to his wife, Bishop Peabody is survived by three sons, Endicott, Samuel, and Malcolm, Jr., and a daughter, Mrs. Marietta Tree, former U.S. representative to the United Nations Trusteeship Council.
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The Rev. Canon Howard A. Johnson, canon theologian at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York from 1954 to 1966, died here in mid-June. Canon Johnson, an authority on the 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, was the author of "Global Odyssey," which was published in 1963 following a two-year, 80-country journey, on which he visited nearly every Anglican communion. In recent years he was a visiting lecturer and consultant in Hong Kong and an associate rector of St. Paul's Church, Oakland, Calif.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The Rev. R. Baldwin Lloyd, executive director of the Episcopal Church's Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO), has called on Congress to pass a strong strip mine bill which would "phase out . . all strip mining in this country." Mr. Lloyd cited "absolutely conclusive evidence from industry and government sources " pointing out that the overwhelming amount of recoverable coal reserves must be deep mined. Only by phase-out of strip mining, Mr. Lloyd stated, "will deep mining in this country receive the attention required to develop to its fullest capacity. "
DETROIT, Mich. -- After nearly four years of study and reflection, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan by a vote of 13-7 approved, in substance, the 1973 report of a special Commission on Homosexuality which called for steps to "create a new climate of openness and understanding about human sexuality and particularly about homosexuality." The Council resolution also declared that "all ministries, professions and occupations should be open to otherwise qualified people whatever their sexual orientation. " The commission was appointed following the disruption of the diocesan convention in November, 1970, by members of the so-called Gay Liberation Front when a non-delegate was denied the right to speak in favor of a resolution then pending which concerned the Church's relationship to homosexuals.