News Brief
Episcopal News Service. October 28, 1982 [82227]
In a definitive county-by-county survey of 111 Judaeo-Christian church bodies, just published, the Episcopal Church was identified as including 1.2% of the total population in its active membership. The survey reported 49.7% of the U.S. population as belonging to those groups participating in the survey. While the survey, sponsored by various groups, including the National Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and others, can only indicate the minimum number of adherents of religious groups, it pinpoints the relative strength county-by-county of each of the participating groups with respect to the population as reported by the 1980 census. Copies of the survey report "Churches and Church Membership in the United States - 1980" are available from the Office of Research at the National Council of Churches.
Prejudice, misinformation, fear and violence were the legacy of Northern Ireland's religious divisions, Bishop Cahal Daly, a leading ecumenist, told Roman Catholic and Protestant churchmen, here for his installation as new head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor.
A native son of the diocese, which includes Belfast, Daly has built a considerable reputation as an informed commentator on Northern Ireland affairs and an active ecumenist while bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois in the Irish republic the past 12 years.
The installation services in St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral drew 1,200 clergy and lay spectators, and included Cardinal Thomas O. Fiaich, primate of Ireland; the papal nuncio, Msgr. Gaetano Alibrandi; Dr. Jack Weir, secretary to the Presbyterian Church; the Rev. Eric Gallagher, representing the Methodists; Bishops Robin Eames and William McCappin of the Anglican Church of Ireland; and David Bleakley of the Irish Council of Churches.
"The implanting of violence in our midst has brought a harvest of bitter grapes, grapes of wrath, grapes of sorrow," Daly told the gathering. "Violence is a primary malignancy, with secondary growths eating into the healthy tissues of whole communities. We must by every means in our power, shun violence. We must never do anything which would directly or indirectly give or seem to give support and encouragement to violence. To end violence in a just and reconciled society is our most basic task."
The Episcopal Society of Ministry on Aging (ESMA) has chosen for the 1983 theme of Age in Action Week, A Call to Action: The Ministry of Older Adults. Presiding Bishop John M. Allin has designated Sunday, May 1, 1983, as the beginning of this year's observance, for which ESMA has again provided a collection of educational resources to every congregation. This packet was written by Gary T. Evans, Diocese of Northern Michigan, a specialist in adult religious education, who also wrote last year's materials. Suggested activities will help older adults recognize and affirm their God-given power and talent for effective ministry in everyday life. They will also aid congregations in beginning to discover what is presently helping and hindering an active ministry by older adults. For more information write ESMA, R.D. #4, Box 146A, Milford, New Jersey 08848. Tel. 201/995-2885
Canadian Anglicans are beginning to take a place in those swelling ranks of peace-makers. For the first time, a nationally sponsored conference has been called to make recommendations to assist the Church's General Synod in drawing up policy about disarmament. In the past, national policy, set by General Synod, has usually resulted from reports by Standing Committees and National Staff. The Synod meets in June of next year in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The two-day conference, which will begin on Nov.11, is specifically designed to assist the Anglican Church of Canada to develop a policy on the subject of disarmament, and to increase awareness amongst its members on the issues involved. Celia Hannant, the national staff person involved in the organization of the conference declares, "It will provide an opportunity to try to grasp and comprehend the scope of the arms race and Canada's involvement in it; to reflect biblically and theologically about it; and to consider possible models for a new approach to peacemaking."
The Provincial Department of Mission of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) has produced a slide/tape show on the work of the Church in Southern Africa. The 24-minute show, which begins with the enthronement of the new Archbishop, the Most Rev. Philip Russell, takes excerpts from his address and gives glimpses of the six dioceses which are the focus of the province's 1982 "Call to Mission." It is available from: The Department of Mission, Box 4849, Johannesburg, South Africa.
During a two-day session at the Church of the Ascension, Chicago, IL, the National Council of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission elected the Rt. Rev. Donald J. Davis, Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and the Rt. Rev. James D. Warner, Bishop of Nebraska, to three year terms on the Council. Also newly elected for three year terms were the Very Rev. Ralph T. Walker, Rector of St. Michael and All Angels, Denver, and Dr. Donald Cole of Portland, Me. Re-elected to three year terms were the Rt. Rev. G. Paul Reeves, Bishop of Georgia, the Rev. J.F. Titus Oates, Rector of All Saints Church, Boston, the Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Rector of St. Luke's Church, Baton Rouge, La., Mrs. William (Frances) Swinford of Lexington, Ky., and Karl O. Sharp of Minneapolis. Newly elected to one year terms were the Rev. Dorsey Henderson, Rector of St. Benedict's Church, Plantation, Florida, and James Rosenthal of Chicago. The Council approved a proposed Congress to take place in Southwest Florida next April with the Rt. Rev. William L. Stevens, Bishop of Fond du Lac heading the list of speakers. The Council learned of the formation of new chapters in Northwestern Pennsylvania, Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida, and Mississippi. With the adoption of a $106,400 budget for 1983, and the continuance of the Rev. Canon Charles H. Osborn as Executive Secretary through 1986, the Council adjourned until its next regular meeting in May, 1983.