News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. January 22, 2002 [2002-020-1]
National Episcopal Clergy Association board meets
(ENS) The board of the National Network of Episcopal Clergy Associations met January 7-11, 2002 in New York City for its Annual Winter Retreat. Along with organizational business, the board discussed the progress being made by clergy to start associations in dioceses which do not currently have them. They met with representatives from the Episcopal Church Center and the Church Pension Fund to discuss emerging theologies of ministry for both clergy and laity; new technology programs which will enhance the clergy deployment process; statistics regarding clergy compensation; and the status of the Church Pension Fund and its programs for active and retired clergy and their families.
The board also made a pilgrimage to Ground Zero to offer continuing prayers and support for the city of New York. At Ground Zero, the group visited St. Paul's Chapel in lower Manhattan to witness its ministry to volunteers, construction workers, and police/fire personnel who labor in the recovery/clean-up effort.
The board also planned NNECA's annual conference, scheduled to take place the last week of June 2002 at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theme for this year's conference is Trust: A Delicate Balance (Vestries, Clergy, and Bishops).
NNECA is an organization which seeks to lead Episcopal clergy into collegial relationships for education, self-care, advocacy, and spiritual growth. For more information about NNECA, check out the website at www.nneca.org.
Anglican Theological Review appoints acting editor
(ENS) The Rev. Charles Hefling, professor of systematic theology at Boston College, has been named acting editor of the Anglican Theological Review.
The appointment was announced by the Rev. James B. Lemler, dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and president of the ATR. "Dr. Hefling brings a wealth of scholarship and editorial experience to the journal," Lemler said in a letter, which explained that the illness of the Rev. James Griffiss, editor of the ATR since 1992 and canon theologian to the presiding bishop, had made a new editorial appointment appropriate.
Founded in 1918, the Anglican Theological Review has been the unofficial organ of the theological seminaries and colleges of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Its contributors and reviews are drawn from many traditions, and it reaches subscribers in more than seventy countries.
The new acting editor is an alumnus of Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School. He earned doctorates from Harvard and from Boston College, where he has taught since 1982. In addition to books on doctrine and the Anglican theologian Austin Farrer, he has edited Our Selves, Our Souls and Bodies, two volumes in the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, and a new collection of essays on the Vatican document Dominus Iesus. He is a fellow of the Episcopal Church Foundation, and instructor in theology for the vocational diaconate program in the Diocese of Massachusetts.
New partnership officer for Africa appointed
(ENS) Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold has appointed Canon Benjamin Musoke-Lubega as the Episcopal Church's Partnership Officer for Africa, effective March 1.
Musoke-Lubega is rector of St. Matthew's and St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Detroit. He is a three-time deputy to General Convention from the dioceses of Southern Ohio and Michigan and a member of the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns. He is also a member of the board of the Global Episcopal Mission diocesan network as well as the board of directors of Church World Service.
Musoke-Lubega was born and raised in Uganda, where he received his early education and graduated from the Bishop Tucker Theological College. He is also a graduate of the McCormick Theological Seminary and Nashotah House.
"Benjamin is known to many of us already through his activities in world mission, economic justice and the Union of Black Episcopalians," said the Rev. Patrick Mauney, executive director of Anglican and Global Relations for the Episcopal Church.
When he joins the Church Center staff, Musoke-Lubega will be based in Anglican and Global Relations, with specific accountabilities to Peace and Justice Ministries. As part of his duties, he will convene the already existing Africa Staff Team.
He is married to Edith, a physician, and they have a young son.