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Samir Habiby to Be PB Fund Director

Episcopal News Service. December 29, 1977 [77423]

NEW YORK, N. Y. -- A former Palestinian refugee and a parish priest heavily involved in refugee resettlement work has been appointed Executive Director of the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.

The Rev. Samir Jamil Habiby, rector of the Episcopal Church of Saint Anselm of Canterbury in Garden Grove, Calif., was appointed to the relief post by the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop. Fr. Habiby's appointment is effective after Easter at which time Mrs. Howard O. Bingley will retire as Executive Director of the Fund.

In his new position, Fr. Habiby will be responsible for administering the Presiding Bishop's Fund and staff service to the Board of Directors of the Fund, an official committee which relates to the Executive Council through the National and World Mission Committee.

His responsibilities will also include disseminating and interpreting information on all facets of the program, such as response to disasters, post-disaster relief and rehabilitation, refugee services, material aid, long-range development projects, and interchurch aid. The Fund office also provides program assistance to dioceses and parishes in developing regional and local world relief programs.

Fr. Habiby has been active in work with refugees in recent years. He was West Coast Coordinator of the national refugee program of the Episcopal Church during the resettlement of hundreds of Southeast Asian refugees. He has also served on various national, state, and local refugee resettlement committees.

At St. Anselm of Canterbury Church, where he has served as rector since 1970, Fr. Habiby directs the St. Anselm Indochinese Refugee Center which helps refugees in the Los Angeles area cope with problems encountered in their resettlement. The ecumenical center has been funded by Church World Service, the relief agency of the National Council of Churches, and is now picking up local community support.

The center has been a pioneer in helping Indochinese refugees by training women to be breadwinners, by providing head start-type educational preparation for children, and in following through on how jobs are handled by the employed refugees. A senior citizen food program for Indochinese refugees is in the planning stage.

Fr. Habiby was born in Haifa on April 18, 1933, during the British Mandate of Palestine. Anglicanism in his family dates back to 1850. When terrorism intensified following World War II, private religious schools were closed and he and his brothers and sisters were sent to Cairo, Egypt.

With the occupation of Haifa in 1947 by Israeli para-military forces and the final withdrawal of British security forces, most of the Arab population fled. Fr. Habiby and his family were considered refugees in Egypt since they were not allowed to return by the Israeli authorities. Their extensive family property was taken over by the Israeli custodian and his father was allowed by the Jordanian authorities in Jerusalem to set up a law practice there.

"Becoming a refugee was a most unsettling experience," Fr. Habiby has said. "However, the loving care I received in the Anglican schools in Cairo as well as the school's calm atmosphere that included children and faculty who were a mixture of Christians, Muslime ad Jews, and of several nationalities, enabled me to look at the Palestine tragedy as a political issue rather than a religious and racial conflict. This did much to heal the pain of dislocation and I learned to accept the students who were of Jewish faith as friends and my equals."

Coming to the U.S. with a scholarship, he graduated from Phillips University in Oklahoma with a B.A. degree and in 1958 he received his M. Div. degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

His ministry includes rural and suburban work, a ministry to the inner city and an involvement with refugees and minorities. He was chaplain at UCLA and also served as a chaplain in the U. S. Navy with two tours of duty in Vietnam. He received a number of military awards. He continues to serve as a reserve chaplain in the Navy.

In the Diocese of Los Angeles, Fr. Habiby has been a successful fund raiser for the annual Good Friday Offering which is a national offering designated for relief work in the Middle East. He has also served as chairman of the department of communications of the diocese and chairman of the editorial board of The Episcopal Review. He was cochairman of the Diocesan Restructure Commission. He is a member of the National Council of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. He has been involved in a variety of community programs.

He was married to Kathryn Sophia Ganitch in 1972 by Bishop Francis Eric Bloy of Los Angeles and he has two stepdaughters. He also has three sons by a first marriage.

Mrs. Bingley has served on the Episcopal Church Center staff since 1961 and as Executive Director of the Presiding Bishop's Fund since 1974. On the staff she has also served in the communication office, the Women's Work Division, and in the Christian Social Relations department. She is a member of a number of National Council of Churches committees.

A native of Connecticut, Mrs. Bingley grew up in Boston. She holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Vassar College and a master's degree in Christian education from Columbia University. Her husband, the Rev. Howard O. Bingley, is rector of St. John's Church, Clifton, Staten Island, in the Diocese of New York. They have two daughters.