Education Officer of Executive Council Named
Diocesan Press Service. April 3, 1973 [73092]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rev. David W. Perry, director of Christian education for the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon, has been appointed Education Officer on the staff of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, headquartered in New York City.
The appointment, made by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, is effective June 1st of this year.
Teams of fact-finders from the Executive Council visited 91 of the 92 dioceses of the church last fall to find out what the church-at-large felt should be the program priorities for 1974-76. Two-thirds of the reporting dioceses listed education as high priority. " There is no clearer mandate," the Council learned, " in the whole of the Church's response than the demand for a new and innovative program of Christian education. "
The education post on the Council staff has been vacant since the Rev. Ledlie Laughlin resigned in late 1971.
Father Perry, a native Oregonian born in Salem in 1941, has been director of Christian education for the Diocese since 1971. Prior to that he served as assistant rector at Christ Church, Lake Oswego, where he was appointed in 1966.
During his two years working for the Diocese of Oregon, Father Perry served as Portland coordinator for the National Council of Churches - World Council of Churches' Paulo Freire event in January, 1973. He is also a board member and past president of the Northwest International Christian Mission Conference, an ecumenical missionary group.
In the Diocese of Oregon, Father Perry serves as a member of the Diocesan Council, and was chairman of the Department of Christian Education during 1969-70. He has worked actively in ecumenical religious education, organizing local resource groups (known as CERG -- Christian Education Regional Groups) throughout western Oregon, and was responsible for bringing Ronald Goldman, the internationally known educator, to Portland for a series of lectures in November, 1971.
Father Perry received his bachelor of arts degree in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1963, and was graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1966 with a bachelor of sacred theology (STB) degree. He was ordained to the priesthood in December of 1966.
He is married to the former Fredrika Wood, of Salem, and the Perrys have two children, Michael, 6, and Stephen, 4. They have made their home in Lake Oswego since 1966.