Wates-Seabury Exchanges Announced
Diocesan Press Service. January 8, 1965 [XXVIII-8]
Six Episcopal and Church of England priests have been selected by Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger and the Archbishop of Canterbury to exchange parishes for one year commencing in 1965.
Sponsored by the Wates-Seabury Program, the exchange enables Anglican and Episcopal priests to receive a first-hand view of similarities and differences in style of ministry and in church life in England and America by exchanging responsibilities.
The program, initiated in 1959 by Anglican layman Norman Wates and the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, is further designed to better the understanding between American and English parishioners.
Planning to exchange parishes, beginning during the summer of 1965 and running through the following summer, are the Very Rev. Lloyd Gressle, dean of the Cathedral of St. John, Wilmington, Del., with the Rev. Canon Peter deD. May, vicar of St. Mark's, Portsmouth, Hants; the Rev. Robert W. Kem, rector of St. Andrew's, Des Moines, Iowa, with the Rev. John Hodgkinson, vicar of St. John's, Ermine, Lincoln; and the Rev. John W. Drake, Jr., rector of St. Paul's, Greenville, N. C., with the Rev. Neil Pritchard, vicar of Holy Trinity, Blackpool.
Although neither priest in any such exchange is an official emissary or agent of his church or nation, each is fully qualified to represent the life of his church and people in his host church and community.
In so far as possible, parish exchanges are made on a basis of similarity in type, location, and size.