Diocesan Ecumenical Officers Propose Ecumenical Study
Episcopal News Service. December 17, 1976 [76390]
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- The executive committee of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) met November 8-10 in Pittsburgh, Pa. to plan the February 14-16, 1977 EDEO annual meeting, at Pittsburgh, and ended up planning for the entire triennium. The proposal will be submitted to all the diocesan ecumenical officers in February.
The proposal is to set up a process of reading, dialogue and group meetings in dioceses and regions to clarify the concept of visible unity -- the unity people pray for each Sunday in church. The climax, if plans are approved, would be a national conference in 1978, to prepare the way for the 1979 General Convention.
Featured speaker at the EDEO annual meeting will be the Archdeacon of Canterbury, Bernard Pawley. He will speak on both the World Council of Churches and Anglican-Roman Catholic relations. Dr. Pawley was a participant in the Nairobi Assembly of the World Council of Churches and the first representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Rome during the time of the second Vatican Council.
Chairman John Bonner of the Diocese of Tennessee will lead the meeting. Ecumenical officers Phebe Hoff of Virginia, John Langfeldt of Nevada, and William Lawson of Massachusetts will lead the discussion on "Goals and Visions of EDEO." Other subjects will be the implementation of General Convention's resolution on the "Lund Principle" as a guide to the Church's ecumenical work, the "Bergamo Report" of the Consultation on Church Union and other new dialogue reports, and the ecumenical response to the ordination of women.
The success of the EDEO ecumenical booth at General Convention in Minnesota was analyzed by the Committee. It is impressive that sixty-eight dioceses and their bishops gave financial support to the booth. Planning for a similar booth at the Denver Convention in 1979 was begun.