World Church-In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. April 4, 1968 [64-8]
ECUMENICALLY SPEAKING
The Ecumenical Cabinet of Missouri, at a recent meeting in Jefferson City, Mo., unanimously endorsed a resolution of the Missouri Committee on the Consultation on Church Union asking that no new ministries be initiated without ecumenical consultation. The cabinet is composed of executives of nine communions, among them the Rt. Rev. George L. Cadigan, Bishop of Missouri.
An ecumenical church in Islamabad, Pakistan will be constructed by 1969 on a five acre site recently secured, according to a statement by the Rt. Rev. Chandu Ray, Anglican Bishop of Karachi and president of the West Pakistan Christian Council. The project will involve all Christian Churches in West Pakistan, including the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, for the first time, have issued a joint statement. In the statement, issued simultaneously in Rome and Geneva, both bodies called for the immediate cessation of armed hostilities in Nigeria.
Roman Catholic and Episcopal students from the University of Tennessee met for a weekend conference Feb. 2 - 4 at DuBose, a conference center of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee. The Conference, in planning for almost a year, focused on the critical issues of war and peace, superabundance and race. It is also hoped that the Conference will act as a stimulus for more local Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations.
OVERSEAS
Christian and Islamic leaders in the Sudan recently met. This meeting was hailed as the beginning of a new era in this country which was in its Southern part, the scene of a prolonged campaign against Christians. Relations between the government and churches have gradually improved, and, according to the Rt. Rev. Oliver C. Allison, Anglican Bishop of the Sudan, churches are gradually being rebuilt and a few clergy returning.
Episcopal churchwomen in Liberia, at their annual meeting in February, voted to give one-third of their annual offering to the Presiding Bishop for work in the urban crisis.
The Rev. Canon Alfred H. Davis, director of the division of national and world program of the Anglican Church of Canada, will retire at the end of this year after completing 16 years in the missionary work of the church.
The 1968 edition of "Going Abroad" has recently been published. It lists Church World Service Programs, World Literacy and Christian Literature Programs, projects of the Radio, Visual Education, and Mass Communication Committee, and English speaking churches, including Anglican. Copies can be obtained from the Division of Overseas Ministries, National Council of Churches, Room 630, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N. Y. 10027.
A Neighborhood Advice Center was recently started in the Diocese of Hong Kong. Volunteers, all of whom undergo a period of training, will operate centers in three churches. These volunteers will aid persons in finding the services they require. Such a service is particularly necessary as Hong Kong has a large refugee population and many do not know what services are available or where to find them.
AT HOME
Dr. William Bruner Campbell, at present an associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Science, has been appointed provost of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. He will succeed Dr. Gaston S. Bruton who retires Aug. 31.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Sacramento, Calif. was dedicated March 24 by the Rt. Rev. Clarence R. Haden, Jr., as a center for urban work. The church will be unique in the diocese in that in addition to being used as a house of worship it will serve the secular social concerns of the public.
Dr. Jan M. Lochman, Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy at the Comenius- Faculty of Theology, Prague, Czechoslovakia, has been appointed Harry Emerson Fosdick Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City for 1968-69.
The Sewanee Military Academy this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. Starting events during the centennial year was a two day celebration in September. A new combination dining hall and auditorium-chapel has been completed and a four-day educational symposium took place March 17-20. Ending the celebration will be the commencement June 1 and 2, featuring as speaker the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop.
The Diocese of West Texas has begun to implement recommendations of the House of Bishops' position paper on youth. Two college students, J. Dan Aken, 18-year-old freshman at Trinity University, San Antonio, and Nancy (Penelope) Van Kleef, 19-year- old freshman at the University of Texas were elected to the Executive Board of the Diocese by the Annual Council. The Council also recommended to parishes and missions that they invite one or two young communicants to sit in meetings of vestries and bishop's committees.
The Los Angeles Liturgical Conference, to be held April 22-24, at the Statler-Hilton, will confront participants with God's world and will investigate the liturgy as the unique activity of worldly men celebrating the grace-filled presence of God in their daily life. Cosponsors of the Conference are the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and The Associated Parishes, Inc. Feature speakers are the Very Rev. Samuel J. Wylie, Dean of the General Theological Seminary and the Rev. Daniel J. Berrigan, S. J., author, poet and member of the faculty of Cornell University.