World Church - In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. July 31, 1970 [89-4]
At Home
A $500,000 "restitution fund" for black causes has been approved by the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The sum, to be raised from the sale of Diocesan assets and other sources, will be turned over to a 30-member all black "restitution committee" half of which will be clergymen and half laity. The money will be used for black organizations, small businesses, education and other purposes selected by the committee.
The Rev. Michael Allen, rector of the historic St. Mark's-in-the- Bouerie Episcopal Church in New York City since 1959, has been named dean of Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. The school has had no dean for several years.
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has authorized an emergency grant of $2,000 from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief to assist the earthquake victims in Peru.
TV Guide reports that anger and financial revolt of the "religious silent majority" in America against recent trends toward "secularization" of churches is leading to a major shift in religious TV programming. It predicted that more emphasis will be placed on spiritual concerns in future programs and less on social activism.
The Rev. Ezra S. Diman, a missionary in the Philippines for 39 years, died unexpectedly on June 17 at Milwaukee, Wis. He had just returned to the United States on terminal furlough prior to his retirement in August.
Dr. Martin E. Marty has been named associate dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School. Dr. Marty, a clergyman of the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod, joined the Chicago faculty in 1963. He is a well-known writer and theologian.
George Herbert Walker III, a managing partner and head of Chicago operations of G. H. Walker & Co., investment bankers, has been elected to the board of directors of The Episcopal Church Foundation. The Foundation is a national organization of laymen that initiates and underwrites programs that support and advance the work of the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Peace Fellowship has appointed Susan Miller, 27, formerly with the New Mobilization Committee in Washington, D.C., and David Vance, 21, former director and coordinator of the Northwest Resistance in Tacoma, Wash., to its national staff in New York City.
Dr. Arthur R. McKay, president of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago for 13 years, has been named president of Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Bexley Hall and Crozer Theological Seminary. The 52-year-old Presbyterian minister and educator will succeed Dr. Gene E. Bartlett, who resigned to become pastor of the First Baptist Church of Newton Centre, Mass.
The Church of the Brethren has revised its Statement on War, placing its support behind young men who refuse to cooperate with the draft as well as those who elect alternate service to combat. It was passed by delegates to the Church's annual meeting held at Lincoln, Neb.
In a move believed to be a "first" in the nation, 25 prominent Jews in Philadelphia, including six rabbis, have organized to help the Black Economic Development Conference (BEDC) raise funds. The "Jewish Friends of Pennsylvania BEDC" will solicit funds for three black development projects -- a housing program, a store and a print shop.
The spotlight of history has fallen upon the Calvary (United) Methodist Church in Southwest Atlanta by becoming the first all-white congregation in the South to have a black pastor. The Rev. Henry Joyner, Jr., will seek to establish a multi-racial congregation.
Two Roman Catholic priests in Detroit have failed in an attempt to operate a theater showing "clean" movies at popular prices in downtown Detroit. The priests reported they could not meet operating expenses.
Archbishop William E. Cousins of Milwaukee has announced that Catholic laymen may administer Holy Communion within established rules. Permission was given for laymen to administer Communion when administration of the sacrament without aid to the priest would make the service too long.
John Moore Hines, son of the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was one of four seminarians ordained to the diaconate at ceremonies in St. Luke's Episcopal Church, North Little Rock, Ark. Bishop Hines witnessed the rite which was conducted by the Rt. Rev. Robert R. Brown, Bishop of Arkansas.
The Rt. Rev. Robert F. Gibson Jr., Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, has announced the appointment of the Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell as Editor of The Virginia Churchman, Diocesan monthly newspaper. He replaces the Rev. William B. Gray, who resigned to become director of communications for Trinity Parish, New York City.
The Rev. Dr. H. Boone Porter, member of the faculty of General Theological Seminary and president of the board of the Church Army, has been appointed director of the Roanridge Rural Church Institute succeeding the Rev. Francis Allison who died last year. Dr. Porter said that during the next few years the Institute will be concerned with training clergy for small Churches who will earn their livelihood through full-time or part-time secular work.
Bishop Henry I. Louttit, who retired as head of the Episcopal Diocese of South Florida when it was divided into three Dioceses in January, was married in West Palm Beach, Fla., to Mrs. Elizabeth S. Harms. The marriage ceremony was read by the 67-year-old Bishop's son, the Rev. Henry I. Louttit, Jr., rector of Christ Church in Valdosta, Ga.
The Rev. Lloyd E. Gressle, rector of St. James Church, Lancaster, Penna., has been elected Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem. He is a member of Executive Council and will succeed the Rt. Rev. Frederick J. Warnecke.
The Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., former Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, has been installed as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He will succeed the Rt. Rev. Horace W.B. Donegan as Bishop in 1973.
Capt. Colin Kelly 3rd, whose father gave his life in World War II and was honored as a great U. S. war hero, has graduated from the Philadelphia Divinity School of the Episcopal Church. He is also a graduate of West Point and will serve in the ministry. He said this is "something I have always wanted to do. " He is expected to return to the Army in 1972 as a chaplain.
Overseas
The Rt. Rev. John Sepeku, Bishop of Dar-es-Salaam, has been elected the first Archbishop of the Province of Tanzania. The former Province of East Africa is being divided into two -- Kenya and Tanzania.
Bishop Festo Habakkuk Olang' of Maseno has been elected Anglican Archbishop of Kenya. He is the first native African elected by Anglicans to the episcopacy in Kenya. He was educated in Kenya and at Oxford University.
Christopher Dawson, noted British Catholic historian and author, who was the first Stillman professor of Roman Catholic theology at Harvard University, died at Budleigh Salterton in Southwest England. He was 80 years old.
Anglican Bishop Kenneth Skelton of Matabeleland, one of Rhodesia's most outspoken critics and a champion of the native African there since his election in 1962, will soon accept a new post in the England Diocese of Durham. He will become assistant bishop in Durham and will also be Rural Dean of Wearmouth. Bishop Skelton said he was leaving Matabeleland "because of personal and domestic reasons. "
A Spanish military court has sentenced two Basque Catholic priests to three years imprisonment on a charge of sheltering Basque terrorists. Father Maria Madariago, parish priest of Bavquio, was found guilty of giving shelter to members of the Basque Nationalist Movement who escaped from military prison last year. Father Francisco Bilbao, of Melaca, was found guilty of the same offense and also was convicted of distributing pamphlets containing "illegal propaganda against the Spanish government."
According to Canon W. Fenton Morley, vicar of Leeds,. Yorkshire, and a prominent Church of England theologian, wives of Anglican curates are forced to go out to work to help their poorly paid husbands. He said about 30 per cent of ordained clergy left the parochial ministry after five years; one-third of them left the ministry entirely. Only 388 men, he said, were recommended for seminary training last year as compared to 737 in 1963.
Mixed marriages, women priests and racism will be among the subjects to be discussed at the first meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council to be held in 1971 in Kenya, East Africa. Creation of the Council was approved at the 1968 Lambeth Conference, a meeting of Bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Archdeacon E.S. Light of Saskatchewan, a retired Chaplain-General with the Canadian Armed Forces, said that regardless of the motives of American draft evaders and deserters "the church has a ministry to them, just as it has to the sick, or the criminals or other people in trouble." About 20,000 draft evaders and deserters are currently in the Toronto area.
The Auckland Anglican Synod of New Zealand has endorsed "in principle" the ordination of women to the priesthood. The vote was 104 to 81 for the proposal. The decision will now be referred to a special commission established by the General Synod.
In a move believed to be the first of its kind, nurses at Stepping Hill Hospital at Stockport, a Manchester, England, suburb, have halted abortions by refusing to carry out operations "as a matter of nursing conscience. " They said religious views were not the major reason for their action.
Work and structure of the Church of England will be drastically affected in the next five years by reduced ordinations and increased clergy retirement, according to the annual report of the Advisory Council for the Church's Ministry. Bishop Laurence Brown of Birmingham, chairman, revealed that the number of ordinations in the two Provinces of the Church last year totalled 420 -- 58 fewer than in 1968.
Roman Catholic Bishop Otto Spuelbeck of Meissen, East Germany, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Berlin at the age of 66. Since he was appointed head of Meissen in 1958 he had been attacked frequently by East German Communist groups.
Archbishop Marcelo Gonzalez Martin of Barcelona, Spain, has announced that laity in his archdiocese have been granted permission to distribute Communion. In a pastoral letter the prelate said that the new privilege had been extended, with the permission of the Vatican, to subdeacons, seminarians who have received minor orders, nuns and the laity.
The Mothers' Union of the Church of England, largest woman's organization in the world-wide Anglican Communion, has named Mrs. Chad Varah of London as its next Central President.
Government officials in Ankara, Turkey, have barred an American expedition seeking to explore Mount Ararat for evidence of Noah's ark. The officials cited "security reasons" for their action.