News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. April 11, 1985 [85083]
(DPS, April 11) -- The 169th convention of the Diocese of North Carolina, meeting here the end of January, elected the Rev. Frank H. Vest, Jr. as suffragan bishop on the second ballot. Vest, 49, has been rector of the largest parish in the diocese, Christ Church, Charlotte, since 1973. He holds divinity degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary and the University of the South. He and his wife, Ann, have three children.
(DPS, April 11) -- Brother Richard Thomas Biernacki, Founder and Superior General of the Brotherhood of St. Gregory, has recently been named an Associate Member of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes of the United States. He is the only non-Roman Catholic Associate Member. Founded in 1956, the Conferences includes among its members 267 superiors, abbots and priors of the Roman Catholic religious orders, communities and institutes in the United States. Its goal is the promotion of the welfare of more than 30,000 priests, brothers and candidates to the religious life. Biernacki, who serves as secretary of the House of Bishops Committee for Religious Communities in the Episcopal Church and as liaison to the Christian communities of the Episcopal Church, had attended the annual meeting of the Conference last August.
(DPS, April 11) -- The Academy Award for best short documentary this year was presented to "The Stone Carvers", a film about stonework of the Washington Cathedral and the craftsmen, past and present, who are responsible for it. Featured in the film are current master carver Vincent Palumbo and retired master carver Roger Morigi, as well as a number of others. Provost of the cathedral, the Rev. Charles A. Perry, said of the film, "We are indeed proud of our carvers... It is only right that their contribution of love and creativity should be recognized in the sensitive and informative film which Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner have produced." Present plans call for the work on the west towers, which is being done on a pay-as-you-go basis, to be completed before 1990. The total cost of completing the towers is estimated to be $5 million.
(DPS, April 11) -- A statue representing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he delivered the last Sunday sermon before his assassination from the Canterbury pulpit of the Washington Cathedral was dedicated at a service at the Washington Cathedral March 31. A part of a series of outer aisle niche carvings with the theme "Saints of All Nations", it is by sculptor James Earl Reid of Baltimore and master carver Vincent Palumbo of the cathedral staff. Bishop John T. Walker, of Washington, officiated, and Atlanta, - 'r, Andrew Young, longtime friend of King, was the speaker.
(DPS, April 11) -- The Rt. Rev. David Young, bishop of Ripon, England, and chairman of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) told the second meeting of the Board of Trustees of SPCK/USA, "I have been in places where there was only one Prayer Book for a huge congregation...There are many things that we in England and North America take for granted." Young went on to challenge his audience to take part in the world-wide Anglican Communion by participating in the missionary task of promoting Christian literature in developing countries. The American branch of the Society was founded last year in cooperation with the University of the South. Since then, it has participated in sending copies of the Book of Common Prayer in Spanish to Honduras, provided textbooks on Christian education to school children in Kenya, booklets for new converts in French for Haiti, theological education by extension texts for Kenya, and a grant of $200 for the library of the Anglican Centre in Rome.
(DPS, April 11) -- The Rev. Dr. James Carpenter, currently on sabbatical from his position as Mary Crooke Hoffman Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the General Seminary, is spending six weeks as volunteer teacher and observer at Central Synagogue, a Reform synagogue here, -t the invitation of its trustees. Working with Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman of the synagogue staff, he has taught a month-long series of lunch-time classes on the meaning of Passover and Easter. He has also taught at Central's religious school, preached to Sabbath services, sat in on staff meetings, and attended adult classes as a student. Carpenter, who had been chairman of the Jewish relations committee of the Diocese of New York for a number of years, approached Zimmerman with the idea a year ago, when he began to feel the need for "direct contact with worshipping Jews" as opposed to attending conferences. Both men expressed positive feelings about the experiment, which they believe is the first of its kind in the country.
(DPS, April 11) -- The annual council of the Diocese of West Texas, meeting here in February, accepted Bishop Scott Field Bailey's request for the election of a bishop coadjutor. They set Sept. 27 as the date for the special council to choose the new bishop, who will succeed Bailey, probably early in 1987. This will be the third time in less than 20 years that the diocese has elected a coadjutor.
(DPS, April 11) - Offices of three of the 20 Anglican dioceses in Uganda have been closed due to fighting between government and anti-government troops, according to the Nairobi-based Africa Church Information Service.
(DPS, April 11) -- The Rt. Rev. Douglas Feaver, retired bishop of the Diocese of Peterborough, was once described as the rudest man in the Church of England. Through the efforts of John Kelly, diocesan communications officer, those who never experienced Feaver's barbs can now judge for themselves. With Feaver's permission, Kelly has gathered a collection of "purple prose" in a book whose sales will benefit the Church of England's Children Society. Among the targets of Feaver's wit were a fellow bishop: "He'd believe anything provided it's not in Holy Scripture;" and a woman confirmand, regarding her husband: "Where did you find him -- in a blackout?." When he retired last year, Feaver was asked if there was anything he would still like to do, and answered, "To bury a few I haven't managed yet." On at least one recorded occasion, however, Feaver met his match; when he told a slacks-wearing rural dean's wife, "I don't like women in trousers," she, eyeing his cassock, responded, "And I don't like men in skirts."