World Church - In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. March 26, 1969 [75-14]
Participants in World Communion Sunday, October 6, will use common materials for the first time this year. Each year participation in the event has increased and now includes Greek Orthodox, Church of the Brethren, African Methodist Episcopal, Roman Catholic, United Methodist, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Presbyterian Church, U.S., United Presbyterian, American Lutheran, Episcopal and Christian Methodist Episcopal. World Communion Sunday emphasizes the spiritual fellowship of members of the Christian community, with each Church celebrating the Communion in its own way.
A department for the study and practice of non-violence in the resolution of human problems is being established at the University of Notre Dame. This was done after two students requested $200 of the University's President, Father Theodore Hesburgh, to set up the program. Notre Dame has been the target of student action recently, and in commenting on this to the nation's governors, Father Hesburgh urged the avoidance of "repressive legislation or over-reaction in its many forms."
During Evangelist Jack Wyrtzen's mid-winter week of meetings in the Los Angeles area, TV and radio personality "Tiny Tim" allegedly became a Christian believer, according to the evangelist, who reported this fact to the newspapers.
A housewife and radio Bible commentator, Mrs. Loretta Lee Fry of Taylor, Mich., says that reading Bible passages from outer space is not a violation of Church-state separation, and she has the signatures of 460,000 persons to back her up. The petitions will be sent to the National Aeronautics and Space Agency.
The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization has gained two new members -- the Board of American Missions of the Lutheran Church in America and the American Church Union. Member groups, which include the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, now number 23.
A World Conference on Religion and Peace has been planned for Kyoto, Japan, early in September, 1970, it was recently announced by a group of 20 leaders from ten major world religions meeting in Istanbul, February 21 to 23. Leaders of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity agreed upon the necessity of utilizing the moral and spiritual resources of all religions to promote a climate of peace. The Rev. Herschel Halbert, Executive Council Secretary for International Affairs, attended the Istanbul meeting in his capacity as a member of the Secretariat of the United States Inter-Religious Committee on Peace.
Father Leo L. Henkel, a retired Roman Catholic priest, is running for mayor of Peru, Ill. He will be one of four candidates.
OVERSEAS
Two Dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada have recently elected Bishops. The Very Rev. Hugh Vernon Stiff, dean of the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer, Calgary, Alta., has been elected Bishop of the Diocese of Keewatin which covers northwest Ontario and part of Northern Manitoba. After a record 30 ballots the Rt. Rev. John Anderson of Red River was elected Bishop of British Columbia, succeeding the Most Rev. Harold Sexton.
The Rev. Elia Khader Khoury, an Arab Anglican priest, was among 40 persons picked up by Jerusalem police in connection with the bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket. Charges have not yet been drawn up, and religious leaders have appealed for an early investigation.
The Maori people, New Zealand's original inhabitants, are rapidly dropping out of the Anglican Church membership in the cities, a special Church commission has reported. The Commission recommended that Church work emphasize social services to the urbanized Maoris because a major source of difficulty has been in the migration of the Maoris from rural tribal areas to the cities.
At a special hearing before the United Nations Committee on South Africa, members of various religious bodies told of their position and of any official action taken against South Africa itself. Speaking for the Executive Council was the Rev. Samuel Van Culin, executive secretary for Africa and the Middle East in the Office of the Deputy for Overseas Relations. He said the Episcopal Church first condemned apartheid officially in 1958 and has since supported the Anglican Church in that country in its opposition to this policy. He also told the committee of the Council's current reassessment of its investment policies in connection with companies and other institutions having financial involvement in South Africa.
Mrs. Evelyn A. Littell, widow of the Rt. Rev. Samuel Harrington Littell, former Bishop of Honolulu, died February 12. She had served with her husband in both China and Honolulu.
AT HOME
Deaconess Phyllis Edwards reportedly became the first woman in the history of the Diocese of California to be placed in charge of a local church when the Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers named her acting vicar of St. Aidan's, San Francisco. She will serve while the vicar, the Rev. Robert Cromey is on leave, but will not celebrate the Holy Communion.
The vestry of Emmanuel Church, Alexandria, Va., may have the first and only father-daughter combination. When Mrs. Margaret Mills was elected to the vestry, she joined her father, Edward R. Van Sant, who is serving a third term.
The Rev. James W. Markunas, a 31-year-old Episcopal clergyman, was found guilty in Detroit of violating a governor's curfew proclamation issued following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. He faces up to 90 days in jail and $100 fine for attempting to participate in a memorial march.
The Convention of the Diocese of Alabama voted its approval of the creation of a new Diocese in cooperation with the Diocese of Florida. The Diocese would consist of South Alabama and Northwest Florida. The Diocese of Florida, at its Convention, voted to study the proposal further and postponed action for at least a year.
The Rev. Thomas Lee Hayes, director of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, left March 20 for a year in Sweden. Acting under the sponsorship of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, the Rev. Mr. Hayes will minister to the 200 young men who have registered under Sweden's "humanitarian asylum. "