Episcopal Press and News
Assistant Ecumenical Officer Appointed
Diocesan Press Service. February 7, 1975 [75052]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rev. William A. Norgren, 47, has been appointed assistant ecumenical officer by the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
In this position Mr. Norgren will share with Peter Day, the ecumenical officer, the work of diocesan and parish ecumenical involvement. He will continue as editor of the Church's Ecumenical Bulletin and communications officer for the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO).
Mr. Norgren will have special responsibility for relating to the National and World Council of Churches.
Under the Joint Commission on Ecumenical Relations he will also focus on relations with the Orthodox and other Eastern Churches. "The task now," he said, "is involvement between the two churches, communication that will lead somewhere. "
A native of Maryland, Mr. Norgren completed his undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Before entering General Theological Seminary in New York City, he was an assistant manager in a Manhattan department store. He did graduate work at Christ Church, Oxford, England, where he was also a chaplain at Christ Church Cathedral.
He is currently secretary of the U.S.A. Anglican-Orthodox Theological Consultation, and theological secretary of a sub-commission of the world Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussion. He is also a member of the diocesan ecumenical commission in New York and chairman of its committee on the Consultation on Church Union.
Mr. Norgren was a member of the first Working Group of representatives from the National Council of Churches and the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (1965-69).
In addition to his writings as editor successively of Unity Trends and the Ecumenical Bulletin and other periodicals, he has edited several books. Living Room Dialogues (1965) was prepared for a local discussion process for Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox laity.
He edited two issues of Midstream, devoted to papers from colloquia on "The Meanings and Practices of Conversion" and "Evangelism in a Pluralistic Society."
This spring a new book will appear, Forum: Religion Speaks to American Issues, prepared to assist local bicentennial discussion groups by Project Forward '76.
In 1959 Mr. Norgren joined the staff of the National Council of Churches as the first executive director of the Commission on Faith and Order, remaining until 1971. He was in Rome during the second, third and fourth sessions of Vatican II and reported on this event widely, both in print and on speaking tours. He wrote the non-Roman Catholic comment on the decree on religious orders for Documents of Vatican II, a one- volume work used throughout the English-speaking world that has had press runs totaling more than one million copies since its publication in 1966.
He was also an advisor at World Council of Churches assemblies at New Delhi (1961) and Uppsala (1968).
Until assuming his present post he did pastoral work, first as priest-in-charge of Ascension and then as pastoral assistant with special interest in laity training and action at Trinity Church, both in New York.
