World Church-In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. March 5, 1968 [63-13]
The Hon. Kenneth Kaunda, President of the Republic of Zambia, will be one of the featured speakers at the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden. He will speak on the evening of July 6 on the subject "Rich and Poor Nations", sharing the platform with British economist Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson).
Mrs. Charlotte Browne-Mayer of New York City has been provisionally appointed Associate General Secretary of the World Council of Churches and Director of its Division of Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service. Mrs. Browne-Mayer, at present director of adult education activities with the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, will be the first woman to hold the rank of associate general secretary if her appointment is confirmed by the Central Committee of the WCC when it meets in Uppsala, Sweden in July.
The Ecumenical Council of Finland unanimously decided at its meeting Feb. 15 to accept two representatives from the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time it authorized its Faith and Order Department to negotiate with those Protestant groups still outside the Council.
Father Gregory Baum, OSA, a noted Roman Catholic ecumenist is closing his center for ecumenical studies at St. Michael's College, Toronto. He said that world and Canadian ecumenism is now so much "the thing" that there is no longer a need for it.
A former Episcopal priest was recently "conditionally ordained:" by a Roman Catholic Bishop, Dr. Hoffer of Munster, without having to renounce his Anglican Orders. The priest involved, Father John Jay Hughes, commented after the ceremony, believed to be the first of its kind since the Reformation, that he had always been convinced of the validity of his previous ordination. "I accepted conditional ordination not to satisfy any doubts of my own but merely to allay the doubts of others." No comment has come from official sources in either the Anglican or Roman Catholic Churches.
Two Russian Orthodox priests from the Moscow Patriarchate are on an extended visit to the Vatican at the invitation of the Secretariat for Christian Unity to study post-conciliar developments in Roman Catholic liturgy, canon law and spirituality. They are Archpriests Piotr Raina and Vladimir Rozhkov.
The Anglican-Methodist Unity Commission in Great Britain has drawn up a proposed ordination service for use in both churches. This service is one of the primary documents in proposals for ultimate union of the two churches.
The World Student Christian Federation has announced withdrawal of its account from the First National City Bank of New York in protest against the bank's "support of the South African Government" by continuing membership in a consortium financing a $40 million revolving credit for that country.
Overseas
The Church of England, through the Church Assembly (the Church's legislative arm), approved of asking for direct membership in the Conference of European Churches, a regional ecumenical body which includes more than 80 churches. Previously the Church had participated in the work of the Conference indirectly through the British Council of Churches.
The Anglican Church of Canada's World Mission Fund exceeded its objective for the fourth consecutive year. Contributions amounted to $526,801, bringing the four year total to $2,758,121. The Fund allows Canadian Anglicans to support a variety of educational, training, and social projects in the world's developing countries.
Students at St. Mark's Secondary School, located in Shaukiwan and under the auspices of the Diocese of Hong Kong, recently began running their own school, one for more than 200 young children from congested squatters huts above St. Mark's. Kindergartners are taught basic skills and older children have lessons in mathematics, English, civics, Chinese and Music. A Bible course is given by members of the Christian Fellowship and a health and hygiene program by members of the Junior Red Cross. The 50 teenagers who run the primary school outside of their own school schedule also finance it. This story is, however, not a unique one in crowded Hong Kong.
Refugees in Vietnam will receive over $1,000,000 in cash and material goods from Church World Service by the end of the current year. Meanwhile the World Council of Churches Division of Interchurch Aid has indicated that it will seek an additional $500,000 to help meet needs of the many made homeless through recent attacks in Vietnam's cities and villages.
Toronto's St. James Cathedral and the diocesan center will be the location of the 11th Annual Conference of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer, The theme of the Conference, to be held April 26 - 27, will be "Prayer Brings Mission." Theme speaker will be Presiding Bishop Hines.
At Home
Three housing workshops are being held at the Urban Training Center in Chicago under the auspices of the Center and the Nonprofit Housing Center of Urban American, Inc. The workshops, designed to acquaint prospective sponsors with various Federal programs, will be held May 6-8, July 1-3 and Nov. 4-6. Also planned is an intensive 5-day low Income Housing Institute in Washington, D. C. Oct. 14-18 for housing professionals and other urban specialists recommended by their agencies. Information and registration forms for both programs can be obtained from Nonprofit Housing Center, Urban America, Inc. 1717 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20036.
Presiding Bishop Hines was speaker at the National Newcomen Dinner in honor of the Association of Episcopal Colleges held at New York City's Hotel Pierre, Jan. 25. The Newcomen Society in North America is a non-profit corporation for the study of business, industrial and institutional history and achievement.
Chairman of the new Board for Theological Education is the Rt. Rev. Fredrick J, Warnecke, Bishop of Bethlehem. The Board is meeting monthly and has asked the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Taylor, director of the Pusey Committee Study, to serve as consultant for six months. During that period a staff executive will be sought.
"Church World News", a 15-minute interfaith newscast produced by the Lutheran Church in America, is now being offered in Spanish by the Episcopal Church. The Spanish edition will be edited and reported by the Rev. Dr. Luis Quiroga, vicar of The Holy Family Episcopal Church in Brooklyn and is being offered to all stations in the United States which devote 50% or more of their broadcasting time to Spanish language programs.