Episcopal Press and News
News Brief
Episcopal News Service. February 1, 1979 [79026]
The Rev. Walter Makhulu, staff officer of the Commission on Inter-Church Aid, Refugees and World Service of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, has been elected Bishop of Botswana in Province of Central Africa. He succeeds the Rt. Rev. Shannon Mallory, who has returned to the United States to become assistant bishop in the Diocese of Long Island. Father Makhulu, a South African, was ordained priest in 1958, served a parish in London in 1967 until his appointment in 1975 to the staff of the World Council of Churches.
The Rev. Jonas White, 51, a priest who spent most of his ministry overseas, died here recently after surgery. Father White was rector of St. James' Church in Pewee Valley in the Diocese of Kentucky at the time of his death. Born in Ancon, in the Panama Canal Zone, Father White served churches in Central America, Colombia, Germany, and Uruguay. In 1974 he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the English community in Montevideo. He is survived by his wife, Renate Niemann and three teen-age children.
The Rt. Rev. Jonathan G. Sherman, retired Bishop of the Diocese of Long Island, has been re-elected president of the Episcopal Church Building Fund. Other officers re-elected are: Jay H. McDowell, vice president; the Rev. Sherrill Scales, Jr., executive vice president; Chester Borck, treasurer; Lindley Franklin, assistant treasurer; and the Rev. Harry Johnson, Jr., assistant secretary.
Guidelines for ecumenical debate on abortion and homosexuality have been approved by the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches and commended to churches and individual Christians. The guidelines are believed to be the first of their kind and they do not take any position on these two issues. Rather, the guidelines "are offered in the hope that Christian unity may grow and be maintained" during debate of the issues, according to the commission's statement. Single copies may be secured from the Commission on Faith and Order, National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, N.Y. 10027.