News Brief
Episcopal News Service. March 26, 1981 [81106]
The Church Deployment Board has just published a "Directory of Episcopal Women Clergy," containing names, addresses, and positions of all women clergy registered with CDO, a total of 261 women, most of whom, approximately 250, are priests. In a foreword, the Rev. Hays H. Rockwell, Chairman of the Board's committee on women & minorities, writes, "As the number of women clergy grow it is important that they are able to be in touch with one another easily and that the church at large is knowledgeable about where they are and what each is doing in ministry." Copies of the Directory are available from the Church Deployment Office, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017. Cost $2.00 each, plus 50 cents postage.
Episcopal Visitors of Religious Communities from the Episcopal Church, Anglican Church of Canada, The Province of Canterbury and the Advisory Council of the Conference on the Religious Life in the Americas met March 12 at the Episcopal Church Center, at the invitation of Presiding Bishop John M. Allin. This meeting was the latest in an ongoing dialogue of how religious communities are related in terms of authority, discipline, membership and service to the rest of the Church. Bishop Michael Fisher, S. S. F., expressed the conviction of all that the religious orders are a sign given by God to the Church and are an integral part of the Body of Christ. There is, he said, "a growing conviction throughout the Anglican Communion that we have reached a point where the informal recognition which has been given in the past to religious orders needs to move into a more formal relationship at the Communion-wide level, which, however, would not compromise the freedom of either the communities or the bishops."
The Rev. Clement Janda, a priest of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan and present Associate General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, has been elected General Secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches. Janda has been with the AACC since 1976. He holds a Master degree in theology from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Tex., having obtained a Bachelor's degree in sociology, religion and history from Makerere University in Uganda and a Diploma in Theology from Bishop Tucker Theological College, also in Uganda.
The Rev. Tetsuro Nishimura, 55, principal of Rikkio High School, an educational institution sponsored by the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Holy Catholic Church of Japan), has been elected Bishop of Tokyo. Bishop-elect Nishimura holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Trinity College, Toronto.
An unusual program of music for Palm Sunday will be presented at Washington Cathedral on April 12 at 4 p. m. The National Chamber Singers in collaboration with the Boston Camerata will perform Gothic processional and ceremonial music in a concert dedicated to the late Iva Dee Hiatt, noted choral conductor. The National Chamber Singers is an invitational choral organization made up of over 250 experienced musicians from throughout the United States, while the Boston Camerata was for many years the performing extension of the Collection of Musical Instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Directed since by 1968 by Joel Cohen, the ensemble has expanded from the group of instrumentalists to include vocal soloists and occasionally a small chamber chorus. The work of Guillaume de Machaut, a fourteenth century French composer, will make up the major part of the program.
An emergency grant from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief will supplement Church World Service aid to victims of the early March earthquake in Greece. Eyewitness accounts suggest that the damage is far more extensive than first reported and many are left homeless. The $7500 grant will go toward a fund to supply tents, blankets and basic foodstuff for the stricken area. Church World Service is the relief arm of the National Council of Churches.
A new educational and recreational tour, "Following the Steps of St. Paul, " will be led to Greece, Turkey and Rome this fall by the Very Rev. Sherman E. Johnson, Dean Emeritus of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific here. The tour leaves New York Sept. 18 and returns Oct. 5. Total cost, including first class hotel rooms, two or three meals daily, and air fare from New York, will be under $3,000 per person. The tour does not follow all the steps of St. Paul, but includes many sites significant for classical, Hellenistic and Christian history, according to Dean Johnson. Stops in Greece include Athens, Epidauros, Mycenae, Corinth, Verghina, Kavalla (Neopolis), Philippi and Thessaloniki. In Turkey, the group will visit Ismir (Smyrna), Pergamum, Ephesus, Hieropolis, Laodicea and Istanbul. The tour concludes with two full days in Rome. For a complete brochure, contact CDSP Continuing Education, 2451 Ridge Road, Berkeley, Calif. 94709 (telephone 415/848-3282).