House of Bishops Meets, Elects
Diocesan Press Service. December 6, 1963 [XVI-1]
Organic unity within Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy must be the goal of the Episcopal Church, the acting presiding officer of the House of Bishops declared Nov. 15 at the close of a four-day meeting of the House in Little Rock, Ark.
The Rt. Rev. Nelson M. Burroughs, Bishop of Ohio, presiding in the absence of Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger, said in a prepared statement that "effort towards reunion is the task of the Church in all its wholeness and it must involve both the ordained and unordained."
Bishop Burroughs further stated that Christian unity "must be the vital and common concern of a bishop, a priest, and it must matter greatly to the laity, whether farmers, lawyers, housewives or whatever walk of life."
He added that, while the meeting of the 133 Episcopal bishops "offered nothing new to the pattern of Episcopal thought regarding Christian unity," it did reinforce the philosophy and function of the Commission on Approaches to Unity.
The Commission, at present, is holding ecumenical conversations with five American churches--Methodist, United Presbyterian, Evangelical United Brethren, Christian (Disciples of Christ), and United Church of Christ.
Because e the 1963 House of Bishops meeting primarily was involved in ecumenical considerations, Bishop Burroughs said that it "will prove to be significant in the life of the Episcopal Church" for several reasons.
"The mood," he explained, "was singularly introspective. The tone for the meeting had been set by a series of papers prepared and studied well in advance. While the papers themselves presented divergent points of view, they led the Bishops to a surprising degree of unanimity regarding the ultimate goal of all current efforts toward the reunion of the Church of Christ."
Also of importance, he said, was the fact that the Church turned for these background papers not only to scholars among the bishops but also to priests and laymen.
"This three-fold contribution served to underscore the fact that effort towards reunion is the task of the Church in all its wholeness," he said.
Bishop Burroughs also called the three-way exchange of viewpoint "the most healthy action taken by the group" and added that the Bishops' consensus was that it had "led them to an unusual degree of understanding and a remarkable unity regarding these important matters which now occupy so fully the attention of Christian forces throughout the world."
As a step toward unification of the Anglican Communion, the House of Bishops enthusiastically endorsed the document, "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ. "
In a resolution directed to the Presiding Bishop and National Council, the bishops expressed their desire "to press forward for implementation" of the document that has become a focal point for the entire 42 million-membered Anglican Communion.
Accordingly, they requested the National Council "to prepare plans for (the document's implementation, including the necessary financial provisions."
Before this can be done, however, the National Council will have to pass action on the document. This will occur at its meeting Dec. 10-12 at Seabury House. Then the proposal will go before General Convention in October, 1964.
The document already has received complete endorsement of the Anglican Church of Canada.
In keeping with one of the document's main thrusts--that of equality between Anglicanism's older and younger churches--the bishops approved in principle the proposal made by the Brazilian Episcopal Church, that it be granted independence. It will become the 19th national church of the Anglican Communion.
Up to this time, the Brazilian Church has been a missionary district of the American church. It is comprised of three districts--Central Brazil, Southern Brazil, and Southwestern Brazil--and has a combined membership of 31,000.
The bishops also recommended that National Council staff members be made available to the Brazilian Church for assistance in setting up its reorganization so that it will be ready for autonomy after details are worked out.
At a final communion service, the bishops elected three new missionary bishops.
The Rev. David B. Reed, a former assistant secretary in the National Council's Overseas Department and now rector of St. Matthew's Church in Rapid City, S.D., was elected the first missionary bishop of the new Missionary District of Colombia.
Two suffragan bishops were elected for Mexico: the Rev. Leonardo Rivera Romero, priest in charge of the Church of the Ascension at Matamoros, and the Rev. Melchor Saucedo, dean of St. Andrews Seminary in Mexico City and older brother of the Bishop of Mexico.