Bishop Herbert Donovan to be Interim Anglican UN Observer
Episcopal News Service. December 15, 1999 [99-189]
(ACNS) Bishop Herbert A. Donovan, Jr., has been appointed to serve as the Anglican Observer at the United Nations on an interim basis.
The appointment, announced Dec. 7 by the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, was made in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the UN Observer's Advisory Council in New York. Donovan will take up the post early in 2000. He is encouraging people throughout the Anglican Communion who have concerns that need to be shared with the United Nations to be in touch with him at his office at the Episcopal Church Center, which is located one block from UN headquarters.
Donovan is no stranger to the life and work of the Anglican Communion. In an interview with ACNS he said that one of his "greatest experiences in the Church" was when all the bishops of the African continent made a pastoral visit to Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York, during his time at that parish. The bishop, who is the son of missionary parents, also spoke of his 1988 experience of the Lambeth Conference as a high point during his episcopate.
Mary Donovan, his wife, is an author, teacher and much-respected lay leader in the Episcopal Church.
After his 1993 retirement as Bishop of Arkansas, Donovan was vicar of Trinity Church in Manhattan and then interim Bishop of Chicago. He recently provided episcopal assistance to the Diocese of New Jersey. He is currently serving as coordinator of the College of Bishops, which meets annually at the General Theological Seminary in New York. He was Secretary of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church for 12 years.