News Brief
Episcopal News Service. November 3, 1977 [77359]
. -- The Diocese of Louisiana's Committee for the Creation of Two Dioceses has released a Draft Proposed Report which will be presented to the Annual Diocesan Convention in February. According to the Committee's findings, there is one geographical division which provides two economically independent dioceses. That plan would utilize the Atchafalaya River as the dividing line and would create a diocese to include New Orleans and Baton Rouge while another would include north and southwest Louisiana with Alexandria as a proposed possible see city.
The faculty of the University of the South's School of Theology has passed a resolution expressing support of women who have become deacons and priests or who are studying for ordination in the Episcopal Church. Its passage followed an address by the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, the presiding bishop, who told members of the House of Bishops he personally could not accept women as priests. A member of the Sewanee faculty said it is their belief that since the Episcopal Church has spoken on this issue, no ambiguity should remain as to the status of women's ordination. The intent of the resolution "is not to enter into a controversy with the presiding bishop," he said; the School of Theology faculty is simply "affirming our support for the women who are being prepared for ordination."
The Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurian here celebrated its 133rd Anniversary Sunday, Oct. 23. Lieutenant Commander Lloyd G. Rupp, Chaplains Corps, U.S. Navy, officiated at the ceremony honoring the Army, Trinity Parish and the Navy Chaplains Corps. The present chapel, built in 1905 by Trinity Episcopal Church, replaced a wooden structure built in 1844. It was named after the Centurian Cornelius, who was the first Roman soldier to be converted to Christianity.
Washington Hospice Society, Inc., has announced the appointment of Sister Mary Margaret Meldon as its Executive Director, a post she will assume November 1. Sister Mary Margaret, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania and presently Associate Director of Cannonsburg General Hospital in Cannonsburg, Pa., has just finished serving as Director of Planning of a study made possible through a foundation grant to study the health delivery system in the service area of her hospital. The Washington Hospice Society was incorporated last April for the purpose of providing care for the terminally ill using the approach developed by Dr. Cicely Saunders in the first hospice, St. Christopher's of London. Emphasis is placed upon the comfort and peace of the dying patient by providing medical relief from pain, counselling and compassionate environment.
In a statement released after their recent quarterly board meeting, the directors of the Episcopal Women's Caucus have expressed dismay to the Presiding Bishop for his personal reflections on women priests expressed before the House of Bishops. It "is totally unacceptable to us" and "an affront to the dignity of women as baptized persons in the Body of Christ," says the statement which the Caucus will distribute to 4, 000 members and friends. "We do not deny the right of the Presiding Bishop to express his personal feelings of conscience," the statement goes on. "We do expect that (the Presiding Bishop) publicly uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church." The Board urged all "who support the ministries of women to make known their concerns."
Texas' Rural Minister of the Year is the Rev. William D. Koons, vicar of Refugio's Episcopal Church of the Ascension and of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Goliad. Announcement was made recently by Dr. David Ruesink, rural sociologist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and general chairman of the 32nd annual Town and Country Church Conference at Texas A&M University. The 54-year-old Koons was special honoree during the conference. Dr. Larry Morgan, agricultural economist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and chairman of the minister of the year committee, said the award honors those ministers "who make outstanding contributions to rural life." Morgan said that he was chosen by an all-denominational committee representing the Extension Service, Experiment Station and the A&M Departments of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology and Sociology.