World Church-In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. November 6, 1967 [59-9]
Ecumenically Speaking
Repeating their ecumenical service of last year Roman Catholic and Anglican Franciscans joined together to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. This year's service was held at Trinity Church, Wall Street and many from the business community were able to attend. Heading the list of dignitaries present were the Rt. Rev. Charles F. Boynton, Suffragan Bishop of New York, and the Most Rev. Terence J. Cooke, Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
A conference on World Economic Development, the first of its kind to be sponsored jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Pontificial Commission on Justice and Peace will be held April 22 - 28, 1968, probably on the continent of Africa. Of particular concern to participants will be the human and economic factors concerning the gap between rich and poor nations, and an assessment of these factors from a Christian perspective.
Participation of three world Christian bodies in the 450th Anniversary of the Reformation in East Germany will be limited. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) denied visas to a number of official representatives of the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches as they were preparing to leave for Wittenberg.
As the Anglican-Methodist Unity Commission of Great Britain met Sept. 20 - 22 Roman Catholic and Old Catholic observers looked on and contributed to the discussions. Also heard from was the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Fisher, who had been quite critical of the commission's progress. He was invited to outline his concerns. Representatives of "dissentient opinion" in the Anglican and Methodist churches also met with the commission and aired their views.
The 16th session of the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, which began Oct 3, will concern itself with "renewal in the world and in the church". The 57 students enrolled come from 26 countries and include four Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, Anglicans and Orthodox.
World Community Day, Nov. 3, concerned itself with food and clothing, and the worldwide lack of both. This observance by Church Women United involved the participation of thousands of church women across the nation in sacrificial meals and in study sessions.
Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars reexamined the causes and effects of the Protestant Reformation, Oct. 20 - 21, in a conference sponsored by Union Theological Seminary, and Fordham University. Sessions were held, alternately, at both institutions.
Three Pacific Islands Churches will unite on Jan. 1, 1968 to form the United Church of Papua-New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The new church will include the United Church of Port Moresby; the Papua Eklesia, formerly the London Missionary Society; and the Methodist Districts of New Guinea Highlands, the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The first ecumenical conference on the student level was sponsored by the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., as part of its centennial celebrations. Attending were more than 300 students from the Greater Boston area seminaries and theological schools, including Andover Newton Theological School, Boston University School of Theology, Crane Theological School, Gordon Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School, St. John's Seminary and Weston College. Dr. James I. McCord, president of Princeton Theological Seminary and past president of the Consultation on Church Union delivered the principal address.
Overseas
The Anglican Church of Canada has recently published a French version of the Book of Common Prayer to meet the needs of French-speaking Anglicans. Five thousand copies of "Le Recueil des Priers de la Communaute Chretienne", the work of the Rev. J. C. Kirby of Montreal Diocesan Theological College and J. H. Bieler, former deputy minister of finance for the province of Quebec, have been printed. Also soon to be published is a translation of the Prayer Book into Japanese for Japanese-speaking Canadians on the West Coast.
The National Christian Council of Japan has embarked on a campaign to recruit and send technical workers to Vietnam and India. The first goal is five agricultural technicians, two to work with a Vietnam service team sponsored by the East Asia Christian Conference and three to aid an ecumenical service project in the Indian State of Bihar.
Leading speaker for the recently concluded Tanzanian Christian Crusade was Fesito Kivengere, an Anglican from Uganda and a leading revival preacher. More than 1000 persons thronged the municipal stadium in Arusha, Tanzania twice a day for services.
The Centro Ximena of Guayaquil, Ecuador has begun a series of four courses designed to involve persons of responsibility in the community in the processes and philosophy of community development. The 27 students in the second course traveled 700 miles to Bogota, Colombia Oct. 5 - 15 to study community action programs there. The program in Bogota was designed in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Xavier University and the National University.
The Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Missions: The Agencies is to be released Nov. 15. It is the only comprehensive global directory of mission organizations. It also describes the founding, history, philosophy, policies and present activities of the agencies. Included in the volume is an article on the missionary work of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
Church World Service has shipped over four billion pounds of foodstuffs, clothing, medicine, and tools to needy peoples throughout the world during the past 21 years. In order to support this continuing effort there is an annual SOS (Share Our Substance) Appeal during Thanksgiving. Episcopalians support the appeal through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
At Home
The Rt. Rev. Chandler W. Sterling, Bishop of Montana, submitted his resignation to the standing committee of his Diocese and to the House of Bishops on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of his consecration. At the time of his election Bishop Sterling had stated he intended to serve the Diocese for 10 years. The 56-year-old bishop has no definite plans for the future if his resignation is accepted.
The Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller, Jr. was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Arkansas Oct. 17 at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock. Chief consecrator was Presiding Bishop Hines. Co-consecrators were the Rt. Rev. Robert R. Brown, Bishop of Arkansas, and the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Bishop of Mississippi.
Mr. Robert S. Ogden has been appointed director of development at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. Mr. Ogden, who recently retired from the New Yorker magazine, is the son of a Boston lawyer and former Chancellor of the Diocese of Massachusetts, and the grandson of an Episcopal priest. He, himself, is a communicant of St. Mark's, New Canaan, Conn.
The Presiding Bishop's apartment, located on the 11th floor of the Episcopal Church Center, was recently dedicated to the glory of God and in honor of the Rt. Rev. Beverly Dandrige Tucker, Bishop of Southern Virginia; the Rt. Rev. Henry St. George Tucker, Bishop of Kyoto, Bishop of Virginia and Presiding Bishop; and the Rt. Rev. Beverly Dandridge Tucker, Bishop of Ohio. The apartment, a gift from the Diocese of Ohio, was dedicated during a brief ceremony at which the former Bishop of Ohio and a number of members of the Tucker family were present.
The National Council of Churches submitted an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to rule on the principle of separation of state and church in a test case now before it. During the beginning of its current session the Court decided it would consider the case of Flast v. Gardner which brings into question the constitutionality of federal legislation which permits, among other things, the payment of salaries to teachers of curricular subjects in parochial schools.
Choice, the Imperative of Tomorrow, a four-part series dealing with man's ability to change himself and his environment, has become a North American interreligious project with the announcement that CBC-TV in Canada has joined CBS in presenting the programs. They will be shown on consecutive Sundays during November.
The 1967 National Drivers Test will again be shown. The rebroadcast is scheduled for Dec. 5 over CBS, just 20 days before Christmas. The object of the test is to promote defensive driving, to enroll persons in defensive driving courses and to provide data for future research projects. Copies of the test forms can be obtained in quantity from Travelers Insurance Co., One Tower Square, Hartford, Conn. 06115 and reproduction proofs from John Dennis, National Safety Council, 425 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City, will remain unfinished for the future the Rt. Rev. Horace W. B. Donegan, Bishop of New York, told clergy of the diocese attending the celebration of his 20th anniversary as a bishop. "It is my desire that while the present agonies in our cities prevail, while the barriers of hate, prejudice, injustice and inequality, which keep men apart from one another and embitter life while they exist in our land, this unfinished Cathedral, towering, as it does, over this great and suffering metropolis shall be the prophetic symbol that our society is still as rough-hewn, ragged, broken and incomplete as the building itself."
THE SHEPHARDS PLAYE, an original opera by John La Montaine, will have its world premier over ABC-TV Dec. 24 at 11:30 p, m. The opera will be performed in Washington's National Cathedral. Also to be broadcast will be the Ecumenical Service of the Word from the National Cathedral. This service is tentatively scheduled for 11:00 a. m. December 25 over NBC. Check your local paper, for time in your area.
The Rt. Rev. C. Edward Crowther, deported this summer by the South African government, has resigned from his position as Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman. The British-born American citizen has also announced that he has accepted a position with the Institute for the Study of Democratic Institutions in California.