News Brief
Episcopal News Service. April 24, 1980 [80150]
The Rt. Rev. James W. Montgomery, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, has been elected chairman of the board of The Church Pension Fund. He has been a trustee since 1976 and a member of the executive committee since 1979. Robert A. Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the Fund, said of Bishop Montgomery's election, "He brings to this office the same great strength as his predecessor: a desire to work with and help people." He replaces Bishop J. Milton Richardson of the Diocese of Texas who died on March 24.
Terry Waite, a 42-year-old layman, has been appointed the Archbishop's Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs by Archbishop Robert Runcie of Canterbury. He is based at Lambeth Palace here and began his duties March 1. He will work in close liaison with Bishop John Howe, secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, and his staff. For the past eight years Mr. Waite has been aiding religious congregations and missionary dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in renewal and development, based in Rome. He will assist the Archbishop with information, advice and action on matters relating to the Archbishop's responsibilities concerning the Anglican Communion and its ecumenical affairs.
Deaconess Mary E. S. Dawson, a missionary assigned to Hankow, China as a teacher in 1921, died here recently. From 1932 until her retirement in 1960, she was an evangelistic worker in The Philippines, except for the World War II years when she was in the U. S. Her retirement home was here where she remained active in her parish. A requiem mass and missionary service was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Bonita, Calif.
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Eliscopal Church, has commended to congregations of the Church the observance of Sea Sunday on July 13. Sponsored by the Anglican Missions to Seamen, London, the day has been observed for several years by many Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Free Church congregations in many parts of the world, according to the Rev. W.J. D. Down, general secretary. On Sea Sunday clergy in many churches have made special reference in sermons and prayers to the work of the shipping industry and the Church's ministry among seafarers and their families, according to Down.
The faculty of the General Theological Seminary, an Episcopal Church institution, has expressed "concern and support" for Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, general secretary of the South Africa Council of Churches, following the withdrawal of his passport by the South African government. The seminary's resolution, signed by 21 faculty members, also expressed "great distress" over the actions taken against the Rev. David Russell for violating his banning order. The resolution condemns all aspects of apartheid which are maintained by the South African government.
A conference, "We're All in the Family," which is sponsored by a task force on Christian education in Province VII of the Episcopal Church, has been announced for Sept. 14-19 at Camp Allen near here. The regional conference on the family will feature the Very Rev. Urban T. Holmes, School of Theology at the University of the South; the Rev. Pittman McGehee, Christ Church, Tyler, Tex.; and the Ven. Harry Pritchett, Jr., archdeacon of the Diocese of Alabama. The cost is $200 per person (a registration fee of $40 must be paid by July 15) and the registration form is to be sent to Mrs. Billye Gerke, Camp Allen, Route 1, Box 146, Navasota, Tex. 77868.
The Most Rev. Bezaleri Ndahura, ishop of Bukavu in Zaire and recently elected Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Burundi, Rwanda and Zaire, made a brief visit to the United States recently following the enthronement of the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Robert A. K. Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury in England. His engagements were in the Dioceses of Washington and Southern Virginia before coming to the Episcopal Church Center where he met with the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Samuel Van Culin, Executive for World Mission in Church and Society, and other staff members. The new French-speaking province of half a million Anglicans will be inaugurated and Archbishop Ndahura will be enthroned on May 11.
The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Robert Runcie, who was enthroned on March 25 as 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, will meet briefly with Pope John Paul II in Accra, Ghana on May 9 for "greeting, private conversation and joint prayer," according to a joint statement from the two Church leaders. This will be the first meeting between the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. The meeting in West Africa will take place while the Pope is visiting six African countries, including Ghana and Zaire, and the Archbishop is on his way to Zaire for the inauguration of the new Anglican province of Burundi, Rwanda and Zaire.
The office of the National Commission on Hispanic Ministries sent a questionnaire in late April to all diocesan bishops in the Episcopal Church as it began its work of implementing a resolution approved by the General Convention last fall calling for a study of the Church's Hispanic ministry. Mrs. Alice Emery, Executive for National Mission in Church and Society at the Episcopal Church Center, said, in a letter accompanying the questionnaire, "We look forward to strengthening the existing ministries and developing a strategy for additional outreach which will be based on the data obtained from the questionnaire." A task force has been appointed to prepare a report based on the survey, according to the Rev. Herbert Arrunategui, Hispanic Ministry Staff Officer. The National Commission is a subcommittee of the Executive Council's National Mission in Church and Society section.