News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. August 20, 1987 [87174]
Archbishop John Ward Armstrong, a leading ecumenist and former archbishop of Armagh and Anglican primate of all Ireland, died July 21 at the age of 71 at his home here. Leading Irish political and religious figures, including the prime minister of Ireland, Charles Haughey, gave tribute to the Belfastborn clergyman. "Armstrong's courageous ecumenical example did much to improve community relations," said Haughey. His counterpart, Cardinal Tomas O'Fiaich, archbishop of Armagh and Roman Catholic primate of all Ireland, said he and Armstrong were "fast friends." The late archbishop was elected chairman of the Irish Council of Churches in 1979 and was "a convinced ecumenist long before the term became widely used," said the cardinal. He was also well known within the Anglican Communion. Armstrong was a strong, inspiring leader "during a most difficult and tense period" in the longstanding history of Irish religious and political strife, according to his successor, Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh. Armstrong was ordained to the ministry in the Church of Ireland in 1939 after taking a degree in classics at Dublin University. He served on the staff of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and later as dean from 1958 to 1968, when he was consecrated bishop of Cashel, Waterford and Lismore. He was elected to the primital see of Armagh as head of the Irish and Northern Irish Anglican community in 1980. Key religious issues during the archbishop's six-year primacy the question of the ordination of women, which he strongly supported, and the introduction of the Alternative Prayer Book in 1984. Armstrong was a liturgical scholar who maintained a lifelong interest in church music. He leaves his wife, Doris, whom he married in 1941, two sons and two daughters.
Kiwanis International has awarded its annual Service Medal to Terry Waite, the Church of England envoy who has been missing in Lebanon since the beginning of the year. The business service organization cited Waite's "exemplary witness and courage as a servant of human and spiritual values" in naming him its honoree. The medal has been placed on display at the Washington Cathedral.
The bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada have been asked by their national executive to consider a comprehensive human-rights code within the church, including opening all ordained positions to persons regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability or place of origin, and just compensation for all church workers who are fired.
A joint Lutheran-Anglican mission effort has led to a new church building for Christians in the new town of Yishun. Few sites for new churches are available here. The Anglicans and Lutherans made their joint application in 1984, and the building was dedicated earlier this year.
Laraine Mather Dennstaedt died here Aug. 2 of heart attack. A founding member of the Council for Women's Ministries and coordinator of its meetings, Dennstaedt was also national secretary of the Daughters of the King National Council. She was an active member of St. John's, Mt. Washington, here, and was serving on the Evangelism Committee of the Diocese of Maryland. Dennstaedt's other activities included being a mentor for the Education for Mission program, training and coordinating chalicists and lay readers for her parish and assisting the chaplain at the Church Home Hospital here. She also administered St. John's Counseling Center. Dennstatedt was retired from the Rouse Company, which does work in planning communities. During her tenure, the company initiated the Rouse Insurance Agency, which she directed. Memorials will be to Daughters of the King and to Council on Women's Ministries. She is survived by her daughter, Lauren.
Ronald C. Barlow, president of Morehouse-Barlow Company, Inc. of Wilton, Conn., recently resigned that position and will leave the company to pursue other interests. Barlow, who joined Morehouse-Barlow in 1959 was elected president in 1969, succeeding Clifford P. Morehouse, former president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. Barlow's father, Harold C. Barlow, retired as vice-president in 1967. Morehouse-Barlow was recently purchased by a printing firm in Harrisburg, Pa.
The first 12 programs of the Episcopal series of the Protestant Hour will begin on Oct. 4, 1987. The programs, produced by the Episcopal Radio TV-Foundation, will be heard over more than 400 radio stations in the United States and also on the Armed Forces Network. It will also be carried on television by the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America. The Rt. Rev. Charles F. Duvall, bishop of Central Gulf Coast, will be this year's speaker. The series, based on the Psalms, is entitled "Love Songs and Blues of the Soul." Music for the series will feature the choirs of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Mobile, Ala. and Christ Episcopal Church in Pensacola, Fla. The Episcopal series of the Protestant Hour is a half-hour program which in 1984 won the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. It is produced for the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation by Arden Moser. The program is duplicated and distributed nationwide by the Protestant Radio/Television Center. Please check with your local stations for dates time.
The second annual commemoration of Constance and her Companions, the Martyrs of Memphis, will be held here Sept. 9, and this year's focus will be on the present AIDS epidemic. The Diocese of West Tennessee will sponsor a symposium at St. Mary's Cathedral entitled "From Yellow Fever to AIDS, a Medical and Ethical Forum on AIDS in Our Community." The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Anaheim, Calif., in 1985, designated Sept. 9 as the official commemorative day of the Church Calendar for the Martyrs of Memphis. Sister Constance, the mother superior of the teaching order of St. Mary based at the Memphis Cathedral, was one of four nuns, six priests and others who gave their lives helping the sick during the 1878 Memphis yellow fever epidemic. The conference begins with a Eucharist in the Cathedral, followed by a light buffet and a panel discussion with representatives from the area medical and religious communities. Canon Frank Cooper, who will preach at the Eucharist, explained, "The task of this year's commemoration is to provide West Tennessee with a context in which everyone can decide how to respond to the crisis of AIDS in our community."
The Pope lost his authority over the Anglican Communion about 460 years ago, but his influence lingers: All Saints' Episcopal Church has delayed its sesquicentennial celebration in deference to the visit of John Paul II. Due in the Detroit area Sept. 18-19 as part of his U.S. tour, the Pope will celebrate a Mass at the Pontiac Silverdome Sept. 19, the day the church was to kick off a week-long observance of its Sept. 23, 1837 founding. All Saints' had planned a banquet on Sept. 19, a Saturday, followed by Holy Communion according to the 1789 Book of Common Prayer on Sunday, evensong on Wednesday and confirmation on the following Sunday, using the current prayer book and hymnal. The church still will celebrate its birthday on Wed. Sept. 23 with an evensong service. However, it has rescheduled the other events.