Episcopal Press and News
Bishop Gressle Chairs Ministry Council
Episcopal News Service. November 18, 1977 [77371]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Rt. Rev. Lloyd E. Gressle, Bishop of Bethlehem, has been named Chairman of the Council for the Development of Ministry of the Episcopal Church, succeeding Dean O. C. Edwards of Seabury-Western Seminary. Dean Edwards, who resigned because of the pressure of other work, will continue as a member of the Council.
Bishop Gressle, who heads the Board for Clergy Deployment, has long been a strong advocate of the voluntary coordination of clergy-serving agencies in the Church.
Bishop Gressle was elected at the meeting of the Council at Seabury House here on November 2-3. Mrs. Philip Sellers, of New Hope, Pennsylvania, was chosen Vice-Chairperson at this time. Mrs. Sellers represents Province m on the Council.
Some thirty representatives of the nine agencies in the Council participated in a workshop on Screening for Ministry, conducted by Dr. Bernard and Jean Haldane, of the Bernard Haldane Associates, and by the Rev. Barton Lloyd, Director of the MidAtlantic Career Center.
Members of the agencies also described highlights of new work and heard a report from Bishop Elliot Sorge, Field Officer for the Development of Ministry on the Church Center staff.
Bishop Sorge, the former Bishop of South-Central Brazil who joined the Center staff in mid-May, said that he saw his role as "stimulating the agencies to be creative in working together... and to help the Church to grow. " He also saw the Church working toward a clearer "image" of ministry, which would be a shared ministry of lay and ordained persons.
The Council is composed of four members-at-large, one representative from each of the nine provinces of the Church, and the chairman and a staff person from each of the ministry agencies and affiliates.
Council agencies and affiliates are: The Board for Theological Education, Board for Clergy Deployment, The Church Pension Fund, Lay Ministries Program Committee, Conference of Seminary Deans, Diocesan Commissions on Ministry (Provincial Representatives), Office of Pastoral Development, General Board of Examining Chaplains, National Institute for Lay Training, and National Network of Episcopal Clergy Associations.