News Brief
Episcopal News Service. December 30, 1976 [76404]
The decision of the Episcopal Church's General Convention last September in Minneapolis to approve the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate was voted the top religion story for 1976 by members of the Religion Newswriters Association. Thirty-five of the 45 religion writers for secular newspapers, news magazines, and wire services voted the Episcopal story as either first or second on their 1 sts. The other top stories for 1976 on the list were: election of Jimmy Carter as P resident, reflecting the interest that was generated by his evangelical beliefs; Detroit conference sponsored by the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops; deepening schism in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod; controversy concerning Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church; International Eucharistic Congress; abortion as an issue in the presidential election; the court decision allowing Karen Quinlan to be removed from a mechanical respirator; the Gallup Poll report that more than one-third of all Americans claim tc have had a "born again" experience; and the movement for divorce and remarriage reform in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Washington Cathedral is in serious need of financial help, according to an announcement by Bishop William F. Creighton and Dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr. A committee on cathedral finances -- chaired by Robert A. Robinson, president of the Church Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church, New York -- has been appointed to review the financial situation at the cathedral. The deficit in the operating budget for the past fiscal year was $760,000 and the total debt on the cathedral now exceeds $11 million. An intensive fund raising campaign is underway to reduce the construction debt. Economy measures planned include staff reduction and the possible retrenching of its varied cultural and religious programs.
The Rev. Sipo Elijah Mzimela, who has been deported from his native South Africa and from Rhodesia because of his opposition to the apartheid policies of those countries, was ordained to the priesthood on Dec. 17 by the Rt. Rev. Richard B. Martin, executive for ministries on the Episcopal Church Center staff. Bishop Martin ordained Fr. Mzimela at St. Luke's Episcopal Church here for Bishop Paul Moore, Jr., of the Diocese of New York who would normally have ordained him on behalf of the Rt. Rev. Colin O'Brien Winter, Bishop-in-Exile of the Diocese of Damaraland of the Church of the Province of South Africa. A recent graduate of General Theological Seminary, New York City, Fr. Mzimela plans to do graduate work in religious education at New York University.
The bishops of the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches in Idaho have recommended that all parishes of the two churches carry on a dialogue on the Eucharist which was recently begun by the leaders. Bishop Hanford L. King, Jr., of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho and Bishop Sylvester Treinen of Boise agreed that the 1971 Windsor Statement on the Eucharist, prepared by an international Anglican-Roman Catholic commission, expresses "substantial agreement" on the doctrine of the Eucharist. Besides the two bishops, three representatives of the clergy from each of the two dioceses took part in the dialogue. A second meeting was set for January 1977.
Mariner's Episcopal Church, a historical congregation in downtown Detroit, has decided not to give any contributions to the diocesan budget, nor to accept visitations from the bishops of the diocese -- H. Coleman McGehee, Jr., William J. Gordon, and Henry I. Mayson -- because of the action of the Episcopal Church's General Convention last September authorizing the ordination of women priests and bishops. Another factor in the decision was reported to be the Convention's approval of proposed revisions to the Book of Common Prayer. The rector, the Rev. Richard W. Ingalls, is president of the Foundation for Christian Theology, publisher of The Christian Challenge. The Standing Committee of the diocese met to decide how to respond to the parish's action, but did not announce its decision immediately.
Inter/met -- an interracial, interdenominational, campusless seminary -- may be forced to close in June after a five-year experiment in theological education. Officials have not decided whether to relocate the program at another institution or to continue a reduced Inter/met program without accreditation. Funding for the school has come from foundations, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, Trinity Parish in New York, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, the National Capital Union Presbytery, and some Jewish sources. The seminary's director, the Rev. John Fletcher, an Episcopalian, said, "Being interfaith has its price. When denominations have tightened economic resources, then they give money to their own seminaries first."
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., has been awarded a grant of $22,211 by the Parish of Trinity Church in New York City, to encourage the seminary's work in awarding a graduate degree in mission strategy. "We have had a long interest in the development of Third World mission strategy, " said the Rev. Robert R. Parks, rector of Trinity, "and we have searched through Episcopal and other seminaries to find who is doing something in the area."