News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. May 8, 1986 [86104]
(DPS, May 8) -- The Rev. Paul Washington, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, was recently presented with the $25,000 Philadelphia Award for his work among the poor and the dispossessed. In making the award, trustees cited Washington's "distinct contributions to the life of our community." Washington's church is located in the city's ghetto and sponsors such programs as a soup kitchen and food and clothing distribution, but the church and Washington himself are probably best known outside of Philadelphia for the 1974 irregular ordinations of the Episcopal Church's first 11 women priests, which took place at the Church of the Advocate and in which Washington participated. Washington is also a former member of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council. The Philadelphia Award was established in 1921 by philanthropist Edward Bok. It is given each year to a person whose activities "advance the best and largest interests of the community." Past recipients have included singer Marian Anderson, baseball figure Connie Mack and symphony conductor Eugene Ormondy.
(DPS, May 8) -- On May 1, the Rt. Rev. Robert E. Terwilliger, 68, officially retired as suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, a post he had held since Dec. 29, 1975. Since April 1, the bishop has been convalescing at the Bishop Davies Center in Hurst, Texas, after having been released from Baylor Medical Center here. He was hospitalized Feb. 18, suffering from diabetic complications. A scholar and theologian, Terwilliger has served in many ecclesiastical and advisory positions, including as a trustee of Nashotah House Seminary (since 1979); as president of the Evangelical and Catholic Union, an organization formed in 1976 to seek alternatives to the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church; and as founding director of Trinity Institute at Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York, where he also served as program developer from 1967-75. Terwilliger, who was born in Cortland, N.Y., received his B.A. degree from Syracuse University in 1939 and his M.Div. from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass. in 1943. Among other degrees, he has a Ph.D. from Yale University and a M.S.T. from the General Theological Seminary.
(DPS, May 8) -- The Church of England's Church Commission, largest owner and manager of real estate in Europe, recently decided not to divest its South Africa-connected holdings. Of the Commissioners' $1 billion portfolio, less than half of one percent comes from South Africa, and Commission secretary James Shelley says it is the church's policy not to invest directly in South Africa. Nevertheless, the decision not to divest completely, which runs counter to General Synod policy, is expected to spark much debate at the June General Synod meeting.
(DPS, May 8) -- An American Episcopal priest and missionary, the Rev. Dr. Robert Renouf, has been named senior personnel officer of the Church of England's United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, recruiting and placing missionaries for the church around the world. Renouf had, since 1982, been bishop's vicar for administration, director of the Anglican Institute, Episcopal Church, Nicaragua. With his wife, Jeannette, he had been helping the Church in Nicaragua develop its links with other parts of the Anglican Communion. The original Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was founded to evangelize colonial America and sent out its first missionaries in 1701. In 1965, it merged with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
(DPS, May 8) -- Quaker and Anglican Canon Paul Oestreicher, whose nomination as Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand, was blocked by conservative elements in the church there, has accepted appointment as director of International Ministries at the cathedral here, beginning in September. The German-born cleric, a pacifist, will be a canon residentiary of Coventry Cathedral, with responsibilities including the fostering of relationships between the cathedral and Christians in China, Germany and the Soviet Union, as well as the Third World. Oestreicher said the offer from Coventry had come to him some time ago, but he had held off accepting "until the call to New Zealand was no longer binding on me."