Rodman, Schlachter to Fill Council Vacancies
Episcopal News Service. November 20, 1980 [80418]
Greenwich, Conn. -- The Episcopal Church Executive Council has elected two priests -- from the Dioceses of Massachusetts and New York -- to fill vacancies on the 44-member body.
Elected at its Nov. 12-14 meeting here were the Rev. Canon Edward W. Rodman of the staff of the Diocese of Massachusetts and the Rev. Barbara Hartley Schlachter, assistant to the rector of St. Bartholomew's Church, White Plains, N. Y.
Rodman, who has been Missioner to Minority Communities and a member of the bishop's staff in Massachusetts since 1971, was elected from a field of 20 on the first ballot. Schlachter, who is the first woman priest elected to the Council, was chosen on the third ballot.
The two priests were elected to fill the unexpired terms of two Council members who resigned recently when they were elected to the episcopacy: Bishop Maurice M. Benitez of Texas and Bishop Coadjutor Herbert A. Donovan of Arkansas. The terms for the two new members will expire at the General Convention meeting in New Orleans in September 1982.
Rodman, 38, was born in Indianapolis and was educated at Hampton Institute and Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. He served in a parish in New Haven, Conn., before he joined the diocesan staff in Boston. He has also been visiting lecturer at the Graduate School of Art and Architecture of the City Planning Department at Yale University and lecturer at the lay school of religion at Yale Divinity School.
During 1977-78, Rodman was coordinator of hearings conducted by the Urban Bishops' Coalition. He has been a member and vice president of the Episcopal Black Ministry Commission.
Schlachter, 35, is a native of Ohio and received her B.A. degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and her M.A. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. Her M. Div. was earned at Union in 1972.
Prior to becoming assistant rector at St. Bartholomew's, she was on the faculty of the Masters School, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Her husband, the Rev. Melvin H. Schlachter, is a pastoral counselor with the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health in Westchester County.
She is a co-founder of the Episcopal Clergy Couples Organization and co-founder and first president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus.