Browning Appointed Bishop of Convocation of American Churches in Europe
Diocesan Press Service. February 8, 1971 [92-1]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rt. Rev. Edmond Lee Browning, Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Diocese of Okinawa, has been appointed Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, according to an announcement by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop.
Bishop Browning is expected to take over his new duties in June, 1971. His immediate predecessor was the Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley who resigned last March to become President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Bishop Browning had previously submitted his resignation as Bishop of Okinawa, to be effective January 1, 1972, in order to prepare the way for the Missionary Diocese of Okinawa to become part of the Nippon Seikokai (the Holy Catholic Church in Japan). The General Convention of the Episcopal Church meeting in Houston, Tex., in October approved the transfer of Okinawa to the Japanese Church in 1972.
The Convocation of American Churches in Europe, under the Jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop, consists of seven parishes in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The Church of the Holy Trinity, Paris, is the Pro-Cathedral of the Convocation.
Bishop Browning will be the American Convocation's first full-time Bishop who will be resident in Europe. The appointment is the result of a proposal to establish a joint Church of England-Episcopalian headquarters on the Continent which was agreed to at a conference held in April, 1970, at Canterbury. The conference requested the Presiding Bishop to appoint a full-time Bishop as his deputy in Europe.
The conference was attended by more than 200 clerical and lay delegates, representing the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar, the Church of England jurisdiction of North and Central Europe and the Convocation of American Episcopal Churches in Europe.
The conference's resolution establishing a joint headquarters indicated that this is "a first step towards the creation of the new integrated ecclesiastical structure for the Anglican Communion in Continental Europe, whether as one Diocese or as a quasi-Province. "
Bishop Browning was consecrated Bishop of Okinawa on January 5, 1968, by Presiding Bishop John E. Hines.
Born in Corpus Christi, Tex., he received his B.A. degree in 1952 from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. Following graduation from St. Luke's Seminary, Sewanee, with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1954, he began his ministry as an assistant at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Corpus Christi, and served there until 1956. From 1956 to 1959 he served as rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Eagle Pass, Tex.
Volunteering for overseas work in 1959, he was assigned as priest-in-charge of All Souls' Church in Machinato, Okinawa. Following Japanese language study in Kobe, Japan, from 1963 to 1965, he became priest-in-charge of St. Matthew's Church in Oroku, a suburb of Naha. In 1967, upon the retirement of Bishop Charles P. Gilson, he was assigned the additional duties of archdeacon for the Church's work in the Ryukyus.
Bishop Browning is married to Patricia Sparks of Taft, Tex., and they have five children.