Episcopal Press and News
News Brief
Episcopal News Service. March 19, 1981 [81096]
More clergy of the Episcopal Church move from one position to another during the month of September than any other month, according to statistics released by the Church Deployment Office. In a recent analysis of the moves of the 8,866 clergy presently registered at the Episcopal Church Center office, it was found that 1,593 moved during September, followed by 1,092 in January and 939 in June. The Rev. Roddy Reid, executive director of the Deployment Office, noted that "Predictably, Christmas and the opening of school or the end of vacations seem to be the determining factors, though a surprising number move in the summer months as well." Clergy moves for the other nine months of the year are as follows: February, 551; March, 452; April, 405; May, 480; July, 892; August, 809; October, 678; November, 526; and December, 449.
Republican Senator and Episcopal priest John C. Danforth will receive the Charles Flint Kellogg Award from the Association of Episcopal Colleges at its banquet April 14. The award recognizes the "distinguished service to Church, society and education" of the 44-year-old Missouri senator who has been active in Church and politics since receiving paired degrees in theology and law from Yale in 1963. He is the seventh Episcopalian to receive the award in memory of the work of Dr. Charles Flint Kellogg who served many years on the association board.
The Episcopal Church's Archdeacon Jordan B. Peck was among those who greeted Pope John Paul II on his two-day tour of Guam in late winter. Peck represented Episcopal Bishop Charles Burgreen, bishop in charge of Micronesia, at the invitation of the Roman Catholic Bishop Felixberto Flores of Agana. Flores paid homage to the close ties of the Churches in introducing Peck to the pontiff who, in turn, expressed high expectations of his forthcoming visit to England and offered a special blessing to the work of the Episcopal Church in Micronesia.
The National Center for the Diaconate has published "The Deacon in the Liturgy" by the Rev. Dr. Ormonde Plater, to help clarify the deacon's role in the Book of Common Prayer's "restoration of diversity of ministries as a cardinal principle of worship." The book is expected to serve as "manual and guide" for the permanent deacons of the Church; a ministry in which Plater has served for 10 years as assistant at a New Orleans church and in a large medical infirmary there. Before entering the ordained ministry he earned a doctoral degree in English language and literature. The book is available from the National Center, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108 for $6.
An English priest has been asked by Ugandan Anglicans to become bishop of the strife and famine ravaged Karamoja region. The Rev. Howell Davies and his wife Jean are expected to arrive in Uganda soon to fill the call. Davies has spent part of the last 20 years as a missionary in East Africa, most recently in Kenya where he became well known among exiled Ugandans during the reign of Idi Amin. Of his call, Davies stated, "I am going to exercise a ministry of reconciliation amid the tribal tensions and bloodshed in the area and also try to work out a coherent plan for the future development of the region."
An exploration into the work of the Conference on Christian Approaches to Defense and Disarmament and drafting portions of its planned report were the main elements of the third meeting of the Episcopal Church's Joint Commission on Peace at the Virginia Seminary near here. The Commission will meet in May and October in New York and in the spring of 1982 back here to prepare the report sought by the General Convention on ways to implement an 18-year-old House of Bishops Pastoral Letter on peace and war.
Recent emergency grants, totalling $7,500, have been sent by the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief to aid programs on both coasts of the U. S. A check for $5,000 was sent to the Diocese of Southwest Florida to provide food and shelter for migrant workers dislocated by recent Florida freezes. Those funds will be administered through St. Barnabas Mission Church, Immokalee. On the other side of the country, $2,500 will be used by the Diocese of Olympia to help the work of the Seattle Bar Association Cuban Task Force in efforts on behalf of 150 Cuban detainees.
"Interface," a religious discussion television program conceived by the Rev. William B. Gray, director of communications for Trinity Parish until his death Nov. 4, 1980, has won an Emmy. The award was made by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at its 24th annual presentation ceremony in early March. The program featured a guest who had community responsibilities in an interview with an ecumenical panel of clergy. Gray was the usual host of the show which also featured Rabbi A. James Rudin, the Rev. Calvin Butts and the Rev. Edwin O'Brien. The show, presented on public service time as one of WABC's community affairs series, quickly gained a rating, an accolade usually accomplished only by commercial programs. It was crowded out of the station's schedule in the fall of 1980 because of the purchase of Sunday morning time by religious groups.
More than 50 students, chaplains, faculty members and other lay adults gathered on the University of Oklahoma campus here in January for a meeting of the Province Seven members of Ministry in Higher Education. Seven of the ten dioceses in Province Seven were represented by people from 20 universities. They heard keynote speaker Arthur E. Zannoni, Ph. D., say that Christians should choose the middle way between the particular and the universal, avoiding the sentimentalism of too narrow a world view and a tendency to jest about what is earnest. Zannoni, who is in residence at Purdue University, and has the title of assistant professor of theology at Notre Dame, suggested that Christians today face a number of major problems, among them simplistic fundamentalism, the electronic church, apathy in values, anti-intellectualism and technology. He said the two biblical models for ministry still valid today are prophet and sage, the first seeking to penetrate the numbness which inhibits us from facing death and the second that of calling for a reflective consciousness and clarification of values. Co-keynoter Tom W. Boyd, Ph. D., assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Oklahoma and an ordained Presbyterian minister, put the specific issues raised in the context of a global perspective: the possibility of total annihilation, the finiteness of resources, and the amorality and immorality of the modern community.
The seven Northwest regional dioceses of the Episcopal Church will sponsor a regional Christian education conference at Lewis & Clark College here June 19-21. The title of the conference will be "Faith is a Verb." Christian educators from the Dioceses of Alaska, Eastern Oregon, Idaho, Olympia, Oregon, Spokane and Utah will gather for the weekend conference, the purpose of which will be "to identify and affirm how we are living our faith and to explore new ways of living faithfully." Keynoter for the conference will be Carman Hunter, former director of Christian Education for the Episcopal Church. Hunter, who is currently an educational consultant, will be speaking on liberation theology, particularly as it pertains to education for individuals and congregations.
A midnight fire March 6 bored through the church building and parish hall of St. Luke in the Fields here, virtually destroying the interior of the 160-year-old Greenwich Village landmark. Fittings ranging from 17-century artifacts through a year-old Casavant organ were ruined or heavily damaged as was the Federal-style facade that is mirrored in the architecture of many newer Village buildings. Offers of help came to the rector, the Rev. Ledlie I. Laughlin, even before the blaze was out and the vestry has acted on that immediate outpouring by voting to restore the exterior and rebuild the Church. Parish worship and programs continue in other buildings and rebuilding efforts are already underway.