Father Simpson to Head 'SPEAK'
Episcopal News Service. August 21, 1980 [80280]
EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. -- The new executive director of the Society for Preserving and Encouraging the Aits and Knowledge (of the Church) -- SPEAK -- and the Episcopal Book Club, and executive editor of The Anglican Digest is the Rev. James B. Simpson, formerly of the Diocese of New Jersey.
Father Simpson, who was rector of Christ Church in Middletown, N. J., from 1970 until mid-July when he assumed the posts at Hillspeak, is a native of Mansfield, Ark. He succeeds the Rev. Howard Lane Foland who retired at the age of 71 in the spring.
The Anglican Digest, a "quarterly miscellany reflecting the words and work of the faithful throughout the Anglican Communion," was founded in 1958 and claims a circulation of well over 100,000 throughout the world. Captain W. R. Swindells is the managing editor of the Digest.
The Episcopal Book Club, out of which The Anglican Digest developed, has grown from its original 80 members to almost 5,000. More than three-quarters of a million books have been distributed to its members.
Father Simpson received his education at Northwestern University, the University of Edinburgh, and Nashotah House. Before entering the seminary, he was a journalist from 1951 to 1964. He was an assistant at Christ Church, Rye, N.Y., from the time of his ordination to the priesthood in 1967 until he went to Christ Church in Middletown in 1970.
He is the co-author of several books, including The 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, The Long Shadows of Lambeth X (1968), Stars in His Crown: A History of Religious Life in America, and Discerning God's Will: The Complete Eyewitness Report of the Eleventh Lambeth Conference (1978).