Browning Rite Set, Calendar Takes Shape
Episcopal News Service. December 19, 1985 [85258]
NEW YORK (DPS, Dec. 19 ) -- From the opening call to worship through the banquet late in the evening, the Jan. 11 installation of Bishop Edmond L. Browning as 24th Presiding Bishop will be a celebration of the music, liturgy and ministry of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
More than 2,000 people will fill the Cathedral Church of SS Peter and Paul to join Browning's predecessor -- Bishop John M. Allin -- Washington Bishop John T. Walker, Dean David Collins, president of the House of Deputies, and other Church leaders in the rites that will mark the formal start of his term as chief pastor and primate. Browning will preach and will celebrate the Eucharist at the 10:30 a.m. service. The service will be the first time that the installation of a Presiding Bishop will take place in the context of the Eucharist.
The service will open with an ancient Hawaiian prayer as the call to worship. This will be followed by a series of processions concluding with the admission of the new Presiding Bishop through the great west doors. After Browning reaches the crossing, a Litany will be sung, and then Allin will open the installation rite. In this portion of the service, representatives of the Church will present Browning with a Bible, Prayer Book, Hymnal and other gifts symbolizing the ministry of chief pastor and primate. The last gift will be the passing of the primatial staff from Allin to Browning, after which Walker will lead Browning to his stall in the Great Choir for the actual installation.
Browning has chosen the propers for "All Baptized Christians" for the Liturgy of the Word which will follow and the ecumenical Eucharistic Prayer D will also be employed. He has designated the offertory to benefit lay ministry training programs through the Appalachian People's Service Organization, vocational training in the Diocese of Polynesia, African hunger relief and Central American refugees, the latter two through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
Browing will meet the press right after the service and then will join his family in a reception for the installation congregation and guests at the nearby Sheraton Hotel.
Most bishops of the Church, as well as representatives of most Anglican partner churches and a wide range of ecumenical guests, are expected to join the service. Large contingents from Hawaii and Browning's native Texas, leaders of every Church organization and a large press corps will round out the capacity congregation.
While the installation will be the centerpiece, the weekend will also include a Friday night Celebration of the New Hymnal, and Bishop Desmond Tutu will preach with Browning as chief celebrant at the 11 a.m. Sunday Eucharist at the Cathedral. Browning announced in his acceptance speech last September that he had invited Tutu and Japanese Primate John Watanabe to be his special guests at the festivities.
In that same speech, Browning promised that his first year would be one of listening to the Church, and he has already mapped out a 21-page master calendar for the year to facilitate that. In addition to Executive Council meetings, installations and consecrations around the country, he plans to travel to Central America in February, and will attend a number of provincial synods and inter-church conferences. He also has plans to meet with representatives of Church agencies, advocacy and special ministry groups and task forces.