News Brief
Episcopal News Service. May 19, 1977 [77175]
The Doctrine Commission of the Anglican Church in Australia has recommended the ordination of women to the priesthood. The report, which was adopted by 11 of the 12 commission members, will be presented to the General Synod of the Church which meets here Aug. 20 through Sept. 3. A minority statement by Canon D. Broughton Knox, principal of Moore Theological College, will also be presented. The commission reported that "from our study of holy orders and the difference between the sexes in scripture, church history and contemporary society, we can find no considerations weighty enough to justify any longer the exclusion of women from ordination."
The Anglican Bishop of Northern Zambia said here recently that he would be embarrassed if a woman priest came to him in Zambia and asked to celebrate communion. Bishop Joseph Mabula, speaking to a gathering of clergy at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church here, said that women are not accepted to the priesthood in most parts of the world and that he would have a difficult time explaining the situation if confronted with such a request in his diocese.
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to buy -- for a reported $608,000 -- the old Philadelphia Divinity School, an Episcopal Church-related landmark in West Philadelphia, that was sought by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. The five-acre property includes a chapel, a dormitory for 43 students, and four other sizable buildings. The divinity school was put up for sale in 1974 after the seminary merged with the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge, Mass., to become the Episcopal Divinity School.
Robert M. Ayres, Jr., of San Antonio, Tex., has been named acting vice chancellor and president of the University of the South, an Episcopal Church-related institution. He will replace Dr. J. Jefferson Bennett who is leaving office June 10. Mr. Ayres is a senior vice president of the investment banking firm of Rotan Moale, Inc. He serves on numerous corporation, civic, and philanthropic boards, and was elected by the 1976 General Convention of the Episcopal Church to a six-year term on the national Executive Council. For the past two years he has been on leave of absence from his business to pursue fund-raising work for the University of the South and for work in world relief.
The image of what appears to be the figure or face of Jesus Christ is reportedly appearing on the altar cloth at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church here. The Rev. Frank R. Knutti, rector of the 150-member church, estimates that more than 2,000 persons of all faiths have visited the church since news of the alleged image was reported on April 13. Iris Reigle, a nine-year-old girl, called attention to it after a prayer service. The rector said some visitors see a profile, others see the face head-on, and still others see an image kneeling or standing. He said he was reluctant to talk about it because "I don't want to make a carnival out of this."
The London-based United Bible Societies have received a gift of $34,000 to complete underwriting the cost of translating the Deutero-canonical books (the Apocrypha) in the Today's English Version (Good News Bible). The organization is undertaking the project in response to official requests it has received from Roman Catholic bishops in Africa, India and Pakistan, and from the 1976 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the U. S. The gift is from William Collins Sons and Co., Ltd., who are publishers -- with the British and Foreign Bible Society, now know as the Bible Society -- of the Good News Bible which was issued last Oct. 14. This version was published by the American Bible Society in the U. S. last Dec. 1. Translation work on the Apocrypha is expected to be completed in late 1977 with publication projected for sometime in 1978.
On July 20-24 Episcopalians from across the country will gather here for the 1977 Episcopal Charismatic Fellowship National Conference, which is a part of the larger, interdenominational Conference on Charismatic Renewal. The international conference is expected to attract more than 60, 000 Christians from all denominations. The planning group for the Episcopal portion of the conference is chaired by the Rev. Robert Hawn, Winter Park, Fla., executive director of the Fellowship. Officials of the conference say that this will be the first broadly ecumenical gathering of Charismatic Christians in the history of the U. S. It will also mark the first time traditional Pentecostals and Charismatics from the mainline churches have come together on a large scale, officials say. Information may be received from: Registration Office, 1977 Conference on Charismatic Renewal in the Christian Churches, P.O. Box 851, South Bend, Ind. 46624.
In celebration of the centennial of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, a book, The Flair and the Fire, has been published. Written by Mrs. Eleanor Meyer Hamilton, administrative assistant to two of the five bishops who have lead the diocese, and editor of the diocesan monthly publication, Episcopal News, the book seeks to give an overview of the spirit of the diocese and is not merely a historical document complete with statistics. A journalist with broad experience, Mrs. Hamilton is also a lawyer, a former public relations officer, and a former junior high teacher.
The Rev. Beverly Messenger-Harris, who was ordained a priest on Jan. 8 in the Diocese of Central New York, is scheduled to become the first member of her sex to be rector of an Episcopal parish. On June 1 she will become rector of Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Sherrill, N.Y. Born in 1949 in Buffalo, N.Y., and baptized a Roman Catholic, Mrs. Messenger-Harris is a graduate of William Smith College and the Episcopal Bexley Hall seminary in Rochester, where she met her future husband who is a Presbyterian minister and who works as a furniture maker and carpenter.
The Church of England's House of Bishops has decided that it will be proper to test the opinion of the Church's General Synod in November, 1978, on the question of ordaining women to the priesthood. The Synod meeting will follow the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference at Canterbury in the summer of 1978. The bishops voted 31 to zero in favor of testing the Synod's opinion. In July, 1975, the General Synod debated the issue and endorsed a motion in all three houses -- bishops, clergy, and laity -- "that there are no fundamental objections to ordination of women to the priesthood. " The Synod invited the bishops when, in light of developments in the Anglican Communion as well as in England, it judged the time for a vote is right to bring before the Synod a proposal to admit women to the priesthood.
Bishop John B. Coburn of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, have issued a joint pastoral letter describing members of their Churches as "neighbors and friends who share the same Christian imperatives" and urging them "to do all these things together which one's conscience and spiritual authorities permit and encourage." The two leaders designated Sunday, May 22 as "Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue Sunday" to stress the "close relations being strengthened" in the religious bodies. May 31 was set aside for the clergy of the two Churches as a day of prayer and discussion on the theme "The Spirituality Necessary for Contemporary Priestly Ministry."
Clergy are warned to be on the alert for a possible fraudulent attempt to extract money for motel bills by a woman in her late sixties. This woman, traveling with her young niece, has asked clergy in Pennsylvania and Delaware -- and perhaps elsewhere -- to come to the motel to bail her out until she is able to straighten out her affairs. Several clergy have assisted her to pay fairly large motel bills and no money has been repaid. After spending a few weeks in one locality she apparently moves on to another community.