Dean Sanders Elected In East Carolina
Episcopal News Service. July 12, 1979 [79227]
Wilmington, N. C. -- The Very Rev. Brice Sidney Sanders, dean of the Episcopal St. Andrew's Cathedral in Jackson, Miss., and brother of the Bishop of Tennessee, has been elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of East Carolina.
Dean Sanders was elected on the second ballot at a special convention June 9 in New Bern, N. C. He notified the diocese of his acceptance early in July. He will eventually succeed the Rt. Rev. Hunley Elebash.
A native of Nashville, Tenn., and graduate of Vanderbilt University and Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., Sanders is the second dean of the cathedral in the Diocese of Mississippi in recent history to be elected a bishop. The Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller, bishop of Arkansas, was elevated from that post in 1967.
He is also the second Sanders of his generation to be elected a bishop. His older brother is the Rt. Rev. William E. Sanders, bishop of Tennessee.
The 49-year-old bishop-elect served three Episcopal congregations in the Diocese for Tennessee and a highly-transient suburban parish in Virginia Beach, Va., before joining the faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary in 1970 as chaplain, associate dean for student affairs, and teacher of pastoral theology and personal religion. In 1975 he was called to St. Andrew's Cathedral.
Sanders' consecration is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Oct. 26, pending approval by the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies of General Convention meeting in Denver, Colo., in September.
As outlined by Bishop Elebash prior to the election, East Carolina's new bishop coadjutor will have "equal share" in visitations, confirmations, ordination, institutions of clergy, dedications, and vacancy consultations.
He will serve as vice-chairman of Executive Council and a member of the Episcopal Foundation and will have "special responsibilities" in the areas of Christian education, college work, camps and conferences, youth work, Christian ministries, communications, stewardship, and ecumencial relations.
Elebash requested "episcopal assistance" for reasons of health and extent of diocesan work soon after he underwent coronary by-pass surgery in December of 1978. The bishop coadjutor will become diocesan bishop upon Elebash's resignation or retirement.
In another change in the episcopate, the Ven. Bernardo Merino-Botero was consecrated the Bishop of Columbia June 29. The chief-consecrator was the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop. Co-consecrators were the Rt. Rev. Lemuel B. Shirley, Bishop of Panama and President of Province 9 of the Episcopal Church, and the Rt. Rev. Adrian D. Caceres, the Bishop of Ecuador. Other Bishops participating in the ordination of the new bishop were the Rt. Rev. Francisco Reus-Froylan, Bishop of Puerto Rico, the Rt. Rev. Anselmo Carral, Bishop of Guatemala and the Rt. Rev. Hayden H. Jones, Bishop of Venezuela.
Bishop Merino is the third Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Colombia and the first one who is native born. His predecessors were the Rt. Rev. David B. Reed, now the Bishop of Kentucky and the Rt. Rev. William Franklin, now an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Peterborough, England.
The scene of the consecration was St. Alban's Church in the city of Bogota. Bishop Merino was elected at a special convention in February. He has served as the Archdeacon of the Diocese for the last two years. He was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church and was received into the Episcopal Church as a deacon in July 1971 and as a priest in November 1971 by the Rt. Rev. R. Heber Gooden, then the Bishop of Panama and the Canal Zone. Bishop Merino is married and has two young sons and a daughter.