Episcopal Press and News
News Brief
Episcopal News Service. June 26, 1980 [80235]
Ernest Robinson, chairman of the Church Deployment Board of the Episcopal Church, has announced the appointment of the Rev. Barbara Schlachter, assistant at St. Bartholomew's Church, White Plains, N.Y., as consultant to the board. Ordained to the priesthood in 1977, she is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan, Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. She is assisting in the production of the first "Directory of Women Clergy" which the Deployment Board will publish next January. She is married to the Rev. Melvin H. Schlachter and they have two children.
The Rev. Howard E. Root, professor of theology at the University of Southampton, England, has been appointed director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, effective Oct. 1, 1981. The appointment is made by the Council for the Anglican Centre in Rome, which has members from six countries as well as the Anglican churches in Rome and from the Anglican Consultative Council. He will succeed the Rev. Harry Smythe, formerly of the Diocese of Melbourne, Australia, who will have completed ten years as director at the end of 1980. Professor Root is a member of the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC).
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has designated Sunday, May 3, 1981, as "Celebration of Age in Action Sunday," according to Lorraine D. Chiaventone, executive director of the Episcopal Society for Ministry on Aging, Inc. Teaching and preaching materials will be produced to supplement the resource materials which were used in the 1980 observance. The designation of such a day was authorized by the Church's General Convention in 1979.
The Rev. Carrol E. Simcox, Ph.D., retired editor of The Living Church and past president of the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, was elected president of the Foundation for Christian Theology during its annual board of directors meeting held here June 6. Dr. Simcox, who lives in Hendersonville, N. C., succeeds the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Harvey, who resigned after his election as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest. Other officers are Hugh R. Abernathy, Victoria, Tex., first vice president and treasurer, and Mrs. Dorothy A. Faber, Austin, Tex., editor of The Christian Challenge, a monthly magazine published by the Foundation, second vice president and secretary.
Georgiana Harding Farr Sibley, an Episcopalian and civil rights leader, died of a stroke in a hospital here on June 12 at the age of 93. The widow of Harper Sibley, a former president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, she represented all American Protestant churches at the United Nations conference in San Francisco in 1945 and was a member of the national Exeuctive Council of the Episcopal Church. She had been a board member of the Young Women's Christian Association, a former president of the United Council of Church Women, a former chairman of the Woman's Planning Committee of Japan International Christian University of Tokyo and a member of the National Preaching Mission. A funeral service was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Millbrook, N. Y., and a memorial service at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester, N.Y.
A second national Black Religion Writers' Workshop will be conducted jointly by the Schools of Communication and Religion at Howard University here, July 14-18. Designed for the training of persons interested in writing religion articles for daily and black newspapers and for religious periodicals, the workshop will also train persons to serve as church correspondents and as editors of local church newsletters. There will be groups for both beginners and more experienced writers and the sessions will include lectures, seminars, writing laboratories and workshops. Enrollment is limited and advance registration is necessary. For information contact Dr. James S. Tinney, P.O. Box 386, Howard University, Washington, D.C. 20059; telephones 202/387-2858 or 202/636-7856.
"Faith Alive, " a witness fellowship in the Episcopal Church, reports that 68 lay witness weekends were held during 1979 and new efforts are being made to introduce churches to the various programs, according to Fred C. Gore, president and executive director. Since its founding ten years ago, "Faith Alive Weekends" have been held in approximately 1,000 churches, including missions to Canada, Honduras and Panama. At its recent board meeting, Dr. Harrison T. Steege, Berwyn, Pa., was elected chairman. Mr. Gore, of Hockessin, Del., was re-elected to his offices. Other officers re-elected were Martin B. Clark, Columbus, Ohio, vice president; Elmore Hudgens, York, Pa., secretary; and George W. Kindon III, Philadelphia, treasurer.
The late Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda will be reburied in a "position of honor," the Anglican Church of Uganda has announced. The present archbishop, Silvanus Wani, said that the Church will honor its martyred leader by placing the remains outside the provincial Cathedral of St. Paul, Namirembe, near the capital of Kampala. Archbishop Luwum was assassinated in February 1977 at the hands of the now overthrown dictator, Idi Amin. He has been buried in a simple grave near his family home.
The Rt. Rev. Richard Third, 52, Bishop-Suffragan of Maidstone in England since 1976, has been appointed by Archbishop Robert Runcie to be Bishop-Suffragan of Dover in the Diocese of Canterbury. Bishop Third will have the Archbishop's "full delegated authority to assume responsibility for all diocesan affairs," a statement from Lambeth Palace says. The appointment was made in order to ease the Archbishop's workload. However, Archbishop Runcie, the statement says, does not want to give up the traditional strong link between the Primate and the Diocese of Canterbury, especially the opportunities to share in the parish life at institutions and confirmations.
The Most Rev. Moses Scott, Archbishop of West Africa and chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, has announced his plan to retire in August, 1981, when he reaches the age of 70. He will also retire as Bishop of Sierra Leone. The bishops of the province will meet to elect a new Archbishop in December, 1981. He has been bishop of his diocese since 1961 and was elevated to the archbishopric in 1969.
A woman deacon, who found her position through the Episcopal Church's Church Deployment Office, will begin her work as the first woman on the full-time clergy staff of Christ Church here. Jane T. Gurry, 48, a recent graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, will have education and youth responsibilities in the parish as well as other pastoral duties. She and her husband -- a career development consultant -- and their three daughters will move to Cincinnati soon to begin new careers. The rector of Christ Church, the Rev. Edward Sims, said the employment of Mrs. Gurry will "bring some balance" to the interracial but still all-male ministry in the parish.
By 433 votes to 327 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland decided, after a five-hour debate in early June, to withdraw from membership in the World Council of Churches. The Church had suspended its membership in November 1978, largely in protest over the grant of $85,000 by the Programme to Combat Racism to the Zimbabwe Patriotic Front, and renewed its suspension at its general assembly last year. A special committee on racism reported to the assembly for the first time this year, calling for a program of education and information on racism and the Christian response to it and for a more detailed study of racism in the USSR and Southern Africa.
A small group of Episcopalians, working at the instigation of Presiding Bishop John M. Allin, has begun "to explore ways" in which certain worship traditions can be used within the context of the Standard Book of Common Prayer to help meet pastoral needs in congregations still leaning toward use of the former Book. The Rev. Canon Vincent Pettit, a priest of the Diocese of New Jersey, convened the group at a hotel here in early June. Members of the Conference of Diocesan Liturgical and Music Commissions and of the Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer engaged in what Pettit characterized as "cordial conversation which laid the groundwork for future talks."