Mutual Responsibility Commission Begins Work for this Triennium
Diocesan Press Service. March 5, 1968 [63-8]
At its organizational meeting Feb. 8 and 9th the Mutual Responsibility Commission elected new officers and appointed eleven new members and a group of consultants. The commission has been newly reformed following the 62nd General Convention of the Church last September and will continue its work for the next three years.
The Rt. Rev. Francisco Reus-Froylan, Bishop of Puerto Rico, was elected Chairman and Mrs. Harold Sorg of Berkeley, California, Vice-chairman. Secretary is Mr. Walker Taylor, Jr., of Wilmington, N. C.
Chairman for the past three years of the Commission has been the Rt. Rev. Thomas H. Wright, Bishop of East Carolina who requested that he not be renominated as chairman.
Bishop Wright was praised in a resolution passed by the Commission for his work since the beginning of MRI, first under former Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger as chairman of the Committee on Mutual Responsibility and then as Chairman of the Mutual Responsibility Commission established by the 61st General Convention of the Church.
The Commission appointed a Prayer Outreach Committee from its own membership: The Very Rev. Dr. Higgins, The Rev. Canon Cary and the Rev. Mr. Breeden with the Rev. Dr. James W. Kennedy of Forward Movement Publications as the Committee's coordinator. This group will try to promote the commitment of all parishes to wider participation in organized plans for prayer and intercessions.
The eleven new members include Bishop Reus-Froylan, the Rt. Rev. Ned Cole, Bishop of Central New York and the Rt. Rev. John H. Burt, Bishop of Ohio. The Bishops were appointed by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop and ex-officio member of the Commission,
New lay and clerical members are the Rev. Canon Kenneth W. Cary of Los Angeles, the Very Rev. Charles A. Higgins of Arkansas, and the Rev. James P. Breeden of Massachusetts, the Hon. Herbert H. Tate of Newark, Mr. Curtis Roosevelt of New York, the Hon. Lyle G. Hall of Erie, Mr. James Garlington of Montana, and Mr. Hiram Neuwoehner of Missouri. These were appointed by the Very Rev. John B. Coburn, President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention of the Church and also an ex-officio member of the commission.
Continuing to serve on the Commission are Bishop Wright, the Rev, David R. Thornberry of Ohio, and Mrs. Theodore Wedel of New York.
Consultants to the commission are the Rt. Rev. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. of New York, the Rev. Canon Charles M, Guilbert of New York, the Rev. James W. Kennedy of Southern Ohio, Mr. Warren H. Turner, Jr. of New York, the Very Rev. Almus M. Thorp of Ohio, the Rev. W. Bradford Hastings of Connecticut and Mr. Leon Modeste of New York.