Bishop Allin Plans Overseas Travels
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1980 [80098]
NEW YORK -- On the eve of his departure for Mexico on March 20, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, announced here the schedule of his missionary and ecumenical travels for the remainder of 1980.
From March 22 to 24 Bishop Allin will consecrate two new suffragan bishops for the Episcopal Diocese of Central and South Mexico and take part in a meeting with the House of Bishops and Council of Province IX which will deal with the transference of the metropolitical authority over the Diocese of Puerto Rico to the President and Synod of that province.
After long planning, the Diocese of Central and South Mexico decided to elect two suffragan bishops to help the Rt. Rev. Jose G. Saucedo with the missionary work of the diocese, especially in the rural areas. The Rev. Roberto Martinez, former dean of the Cathedral of San Jose de Gracia in Mexico City and the Rev. Claro Huerta, priest-in-charge of the Episcopal Church in Veracruz, have been elected and will be consecrated on March 22. The new bishops are expected to be "missionaries in episcopal orders," according to the strategies set up by the Anglican conferences of Cuernavaca and Sao Paulo.
On March 25 the Presiding Bishop will take part in the enthronement of the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Robert Runcie in Canterbury Cathedral, England.
From April 24 to 27 Bishop Allin will make his first visit to the Diocese of Liberia and will inaugurate the Rural Development Institute at Cuttington College.
The Diocese of Liberia is the only overseas jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church on the African continent and is planning to join the Anglican Province of West Africa with which it shares many cultural and social similarities.
Cuttington College, founded by the Episcopal Church in 1889, is the only private-owned institution of higher learning in the sub-Sahara region. Its interest in agriculture led to the establishment of the Rural Institute that will train not only people from Liberia but also from neighboring countries.
On April 28 Bishop Allin will meet with the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, the Most Rev. Marinus Kok in Utrecht, the Netherlands. On this occasion he will introduce the Rt. Rev. John M. Krumm, former Bishop of Southern Ohio, now appointed to serve as Bishop-in-Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe.
Bishop Allin will take part in the opening services on April 29-30 of a new Episcopal congregation in Waterloo, near Brussels. On May 1 he will install Bishop Krumm during the celebration of the convention of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe in Rome.
On May 29 Bishop Allin will travel to Porto Alegre, Brazil, in order to participate in the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Episcopal Church in that South American country. He will meet with the Most Rev. Arthur R. Kratz, Primate of the Igreja Episcopal do Brasil, and other bishops and church leaders.
The Episcopal Church of Brazil became an independent province of the Anglican Communion in 1966 after being part of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. for more than 75 years. At the present time it has five dioceses. The Presiding Bishop hopes his presence will help to strengthen the bonds of unity among these two sister churches.
The Presiding Bishop will meet on June 22 with His Beatitude Serafim, Archbishop of Athens and All of Greece, in Athens. On June 25-26 Bishop Allin will visit his All-Holiness Demetrius I, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch.
On June 27-28 he will visit the Most Rev. Shake Ajamian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Most Rev. Constantine of Kyriaboupoulis, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the Anglican Diocese of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
His visit to Jerusalem will end with a pilgrimage to some biblical places in the Holy Land.
Bishop Allin will be accompanied on all these trips by the Rev. Samuel Van Culin, Executive for World Mission in Church and Society at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.