Associate for Social Policy Development Appointed
Diocesan Press Service. June 16, 1969 [77-21]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- Poikail John George, former Director of Program Development for the University Christian Movement, has been appointed to the staff of the Executive Council by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, effective June 23. He will serve as Associate for Social Policy Development in the Public Affairs Team, according to an announcement by Mrs. Robert Webb, director of the Council's Section for Experimental and Specialized Services.
The Public Affairs Team keeps the Council abreast of current social and political issues, providing necessary material so that the Council can decide whether to take a position on a particular issue. It disseminates information on the positions taken by the Council and represents the Council in those groups or organizations dealing with the issues upon which stands have been officially taken.
While with the University Christian Movement, Mr. George, a 35 year old native of Kerala, India, was responsible for program in the socio-political area. He served as a consultant and participant in many international conferences and has traveled widely outside the United States.
He served as a consultant o World Hunger at the Church and Society Conference in Detroit in 1966; was a participant at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden in 1968 and at the World Student Christian Federation Student Conference in Turku, Finland, also in 1968. He is presently a consultant to the Papal Commission on Social Development and Peace, which has a joint secretariat with the World Council of Churches (SODEPAX).
A member of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church. Mr. George is a graduate of Trihuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, and of the South India Bible Institute, Bangarapet, India. In 1965 he received an S. T. M. degree from Souther Methodist University in Dallas and is completing work on a Ph.D. in the field of Christian thought from the Hartford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Conn.
Before coming to the United States, he was Secretary for Publications, South India Bible Institute, and a lay missionary, pastor, teacher and organizer in Nepal.
He married Saramma Varghese in 1959. They are the parents of two children.