Birmingham Hosts Urban Bishops Hearing
Episcopal News Service. January 5, 1978 [78006]
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The pain and trials of the elderly, the poor, the handicapped, the homosexual people living in cities were underscored as Episcopal Urban Bishops carried their quest for understanding of the urban crisis into the deeTwenty-three people testified before this, the third in a series of five public hearings which the Urban Bishops Coalition plans to help them develop strategies for a major Episcopal Church thrust against the problems of urban life. The first hearing was held in Chicago, the second in Newark. Another is planned on the West Coast and a final hearing will be held in Washington and will attempt to highlight federal problems and attitudes as well as those of Washingtonians. The hearing here was held on Dec. 16.p South.
Those who gave testimony about urban problems and opportunities were old and young, white and black, rich and poor, able bodied and physically handicapped. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev. Joseph Vath, is head of the city's ecumenical Hunger Coalition and he spoke on that subject.
The president of the largest bank in Alabama also spoke and in contrast a black woman, head of an organization for families of prisoners, spoke of prison Other subjects discussed were neighborhood revitalization and neighborhood stability, housing but especially housing problems of the poorest of the poor, persons with physical impairments, the elderly, the special needs of deaf persons, youth problems, women's issues, homosexuals, health care, rape response, the ministry in an urban university, the needs of mentally retarded persons, economic and racial affairs, and community organizations. Each person who discussed a problem or need was asked also to make some precise recommendation or request to the Episcopal Church in Alabama.reform and the inequities of "justice".
Several deaf persons attended the hearing and two sign language interpreters took turns signing all the testimony and the panel's questions for them.
To summarize and make recommendations the panel members met the following morning with the Bishop of Alabama, Furman C. Stough, the local support group, and with the staff provided by the Urban Bishops' Coalition, the Rev. Hugh C. White, Jr., of Detroit and the Rev. Edward W. Rodman of Boston.
The panel members were Bishop John T. Walker of Washington, who presided, Bishop John M. Krumm of Southern Ohio; and Bishop Morris Arnold, Suffragan of Massachusetts; the Rev. Ted McEachern of Nashville, Tenn., a Methodist minister working full time on community and urban studies; Ms. Odessa Woolfolk of the Center for Urban Studies at the University of Alabama in Birmingham; Mr. Frank Bromberg, Jr., businessman and diocesan treasurer; Mr. Tony Harrison, state legislator; and the Rev. Martin Tilson, rector of a Birmingham parish and convenor of the national Episcopal Church's Commission for Social and Specialized Ministries. Three of the panelists are black.
Visitors attending the hearing came from Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Orlando as well as more than two hundred from Birmingham.