Dean to be Executive Officer
Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1964 [XXIII-15]
The Rt. Rev. Ralph S. Dean, Anglican Bishop of Cariboo (British Columbia), will succeed the Rt. Rev. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr., as Executive Officer of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The appointment was made by the Communion's 18 archbishops and metropolitans. It will become effective in November when Bishop Bayne returns to the United States to direct the work of the Overseas Department.
Since the office was initiated, its broad function of determining missionary strategy has been further refined. With the birth of a document called "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ," the brain-child of the Anglican Communion's 18 national church leaders, the Anglican Church's missionary emphasis has shifted from autonomous to cooperative church development.
The document calls upon all Anglican Churches to participate in developing Anglicanism's role in Christian worldwide missionary strategy. It immediately requests of the older, more established churches to share money and manpower with the younger churches, in order that the latter may be sufficiently strengthened to participate more fully in worldwide Christian tasks.
Prior to the guidelines set down by the document, Bishop Bayne covered more than 200, 000 miles per year to establish lines of communication between the 18 national churches. Now, Bishop Dean will plan the pooling of human and material resources but he will have the assistance of nine regional directors spotted strategically around the world: in Africa, the British Isles, India, Latin America, North America, Pakistan and the Middle East, the South. Pacific and South East Asia.
Already, the Rt. Rev. John W. Sadiq, Bishop of Nagpur, India, has been named Regional Officer for the 15 Anglican dioceses in Ceylon, India, and East Pakistan, and the Rev. James. Pong, vicar of St. James' Church, Wanchai, Hong Kong, is coordinator for South East Asia.