News Brief
Episcopal News Service. December 29, 1977 [77427]
The Very Rev. Stanley Rodgers, Dean of Grace Cathedral, Episcopal Diocese of California, collapsed and died of a heart attack on Dec. 11 shortly after delivering a sermon at the 11 a. m. service. Dean Rodgers, 49, collapsed in his chair and was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was active in Episcopal Church work in Massachusetts and Missouri before coming to Grace Cathedral in 1967 as a canon chancellor. He was named dean in 1975. He is survived by his wife, Helen, two sons and three daughters.
Against a background of protest and petition, the New Zealand Anglican Church's first four women priests were ordained in mid-December. In Aukland, Bishop Eric A. Gowing ordained Heather Brunton, Jean Brookes and Wendy Cranston as priests, and in Napier, Bishop Paul Reeves ordained Cherie Baker.
The Rev. Catherine Welton, a deacon from the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, has become the first woman to preach or assist in the serving of the Eucharist in Anglican churches in Japan. She recently returned after spending several months in Japan working with the Diocese of North Kanto, which has had a companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania since 1974. She attended the General Synod of the Nippon Seikokai, the Anglican Church in Japan.
Church World Service, the relief agency of the National Council of Churches, has signed a formal agreement with the Republic of Cape Verde to provide development assistance to that African country, which gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Under the agreement -- the first such between the agency and an emerging African state -- Church World Service will make available high protein foods, medication, medical equipment, grain, farm implements and equipment, and school equipment free of charge. It will also provide technical and financial assistance to projects in villages and rural areas and support training programs for local workers.
Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of Lesotho has been named General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He is the first black person to hold the position. Bishop Tutu had been offered the post in 1976, but the other Anglican bishops in South Africa persuaded him to remain in his position in Lesotho, which he assumed in August, 1976. He was dean of the Cathedral of St. Mary in Johannesburg before becoming a bishop. He succeeds the Rev. John Thorne of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa in the Council of Churches position.
Indians from three tribes -- Sioux, Chippewa and Winnebago -- sang hymns in their native tongues when the Mazakute Memorial Church was dedicated here by Bishop Philip F. McNairy of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. During one segment of the service, the participants smoked a peace pipe in front of the altar. The Church is named for Paul Mazakute, the first Sioux to become an Episcopal priest. The enlarged church which Bishop McNairy dedicated cost about $77,000. Funding for it came from the Episcopal Church's United Thank Offering. It is said to be the only urban Indian parish financed by the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The Church of North India -- a part of the Wider Episcopal Fellowship -- has voted to permit each of its 22 dioceses to decide for itself whether to ordain women as priests. The Third General Synod agreed to permit the ordination of women "if the (individual) diocesan council agrees to the ordination of women." Under the measure, a woman ordained in one diocese would not automatically be given employment or permission to exercise pastoral functions in another diocese. Only eight of the diocesan councils have expressed interest in ordaining women so far. The next Synod will discuss implementation of the action. A similar resolution was approved by the Synod of the Church of South India in 1976.
The Rev. Logan Jackson, vicar of St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Manchester, Tenn., has been elected president of the Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer, replacing Mr. Clyde Turner, Charleston, S.C., who has resigned. Board member John M. Aden said that the Society needs improved funding to continue its work. He announced a reduction in staff and plans for more efficient quartering of the office.
-- The Theology Commission of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has welcomed and endorsed the Agreed Statement on Authority in the Church which was published by the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission in January, 1977, in Venice, Italy. The Commission pointed out that problems remain, such as the treatment of the Petrine texts, divine right, infallibility and universal jurisdiction.
The Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr., who has resigned as Dean of Washington Cathedral effective January 17, 1978, will become associate director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on March 1. The Center was established by the Congress of the U.S. as the nation's official "living memorial" in honor of President Woodrow Wilson, who was Dean Sayre's grandfather. It receives both public and private support. Dean Sayre has served in his post at the cathedral since 1951.