World Church - In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. February 25, 1969 [74-21]
At Home
The Rt. Rev. Lauriston L. Scaife, Bishop of Western New York, addressed the Diocesan Convention by means of a tape recording after being hospitalized with a broken jaw, the result of a fall at the Buffalo railroad station. He assured delegates that he had a fainting spell and not a heart attack or stroke.
Jennifer Albright, the wife of a seminarian attending the Bangor, Me., Theological Seminary, is helping her husband through school by working as a belly dancer. She also goes to school and is employed part-time as a waitress. Husband Stephen approves enthusiastically, she says.
Two men have been elected to the episcopacy at Episcopal Diocesan Conventions: The Rev. David R. Thornberry, of Shaker Heights, O., was chosen their new Bishop by-the convention of the Diocese of Wyoming to succeed the Rt. Rev. J. Wilson Hunter. The Ven. Stanley Atkins, of the Diocese of Milwaukee, was elected Coadjutor Bishop of Eau Claire to succeed the Rt. Rev. William W. Horstick in 1970.
An Episcopal priest, the Rev. Robert D. North, who is also a freshman member of the Minnesota legislature, has introduced a bill that would place new restrictions on the tax-exempt status of Church property.
Taken by death: Deaconess Harriet M. Bedell, 92, former missionary in Alaska from 1916 to 1932, when she retired; at the Bishop William Crane Gray Inn for Older People in Florida where she had lived for seven years; on January 1. Miss Ernestine Gardiner, missionary in Japan for 32 years; at her home in San Francisco; on January 25.
David M. Williams, 21, has been elected junior warden by the congregation of the Church of the Nativity, Newport, Penn.
The Rev. Arthur Lee Kinsolving, for 22 years rector of St. James Episcopal Church, New York City, has announced that he will retire September 1, 1969. A new oratorio, entitled "The Light in the Wilderness," composed by the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, had its East Coast premiere and first Church performance at the Washington National Cathedral on February 23.
The Pacific Churchman, publication of the Diocese of California, has suspended publication after 102 years of existence. It had been one of the oldest publications in the Episcopal Church. Its demise was attributed to diminishing financial support for the work of the Diocese.
The Rt. Rev. Charles F. Boynton, Senior Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of New York, has resigned, effective June 30, 1969.
Ecumenically Speaking
Plans for the construction of a mosque and cultural center on New York City's East Side have been announced by the ambassadors of 25 Islamic nations accredited to the United Nations.
The city of Milwaukee has received $500 from Faith Church, United Church of Christ, as a contribution to help offset the cost of services provided by the city administration.
Permission has been received from the Vatican for Roman Catholic women in the United States to serve as lectors, commentators and song leaders at the Mass under special circumstances. The ruling will apply chiefly to women in religious orders but may be extended to others when male lectors are not available.
For what is believed to be the first time in history of the Southern Baptist Church, a predominantly White congregation has ordained and called a Black minister as its pastor. The Rev. Ray Wolfe will serve the Hulbert Baptist Church in Hulbert, Mich.
The School of Theology, Claremont, Calif., Methodist, and Bloy House Theological School, Los Angeles, Episcopalian, have entered into an agreement linking the two schools in a joint program for educating candidates for the ministry.
Another Kirchentag (Laity Conference) will be held in Stuttgart, Germany, this summer from July 16 to 20 in which 30,000 persons are expected to participate.
The Church of England has been asked by its Liturgical Commission to canonize the founders of the Quaker and Methodist movements. In addition to asking for sainthood for George Fox and John and Charles Wesley, the report suggested canonization for John Bunyan, author of "Pilgrim's Progress," and 31 others including the missionary-explorer David Livingston.
Two Anglicans, the Rev. John Anderson Burley, and the Rev. John Satterthwaite, have been elected honorary canons of the Old Catholic Church at Utrecht.
Official results on voting by clergy and laity of the Church of England on plans for reunion with the Methodist Church indicate that a majority of both are in favor of entering into the first stage of merger.
Wine and cheese parties have been substituted for Sunday Evensong at St. Mary's Anglican Church, Peterborough, England. The gatherings will be used to encourage discussion. "I feel sure," the vicar says, "they will talk more freely after a glass or two of wine."