Episcopal Press and News
International Figures to Address Convention Sessions
Episcopal News Service. May 6, 1982 [82111]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 6) -- Several internationally known speakers have been invited by Presiding Bishop John M. Allin to address the Episcopal Church's General Convention on three days during its triennial meeting in New Orleans in September.
The 256 bishops and 908 deputies who will be in session Sept. 5-15, together with the Episcopal women and visitors will have opportunity to hear the series of speakers -- most of them are household names -- and learn of their global perspectives on some of the major issues of the 1980s.
The three one-hour joint sessions will he held on Sept. 7, 8 and 9. The Tuesday morning session will be at the Saenger Theatre while the Wednesday and Thursday sessions will be in the South Hall of the Rivergate convention hall, next to the meeting room of the House of Deputies.
Allin said this format will place bishops and deputies in a "listening stance" as these speakers, from their varied backgrounds, share their experiences on the international scene.
The Rt. Rev. Robert H.A. Eames, Anglican Bishop of Down and Dromore, in Northern Ireland, a member of the panel, comes from a church that is in the midst of a country characterized by turmoil and trouble and will share his perspective on that critical situation. Eames led a Church of Ireland delegation to New York and Washington last year.
The Anglican Bishop of Iran, the Rt. Rev. H.B. Dehqani-Tafti, has accepted Allin's invitation, and comes out of the revolutionary turmoil of Iran. He is now living in exile in England. He is also President Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, a province of which Iran is a part.
Andrew Young, who was elected Mayor of Atlanta last year, will also be a participant. As clergyman, civil rights leader, Congressman, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Young has been at the forefront of social change issues for a number of years. He will join the panel on Sept. 9 to bring his own perspective to some of the issues facing the Church and world today.
Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, will be interviewed before the assembly on Sept. 7. Tutu has been an outspoken opponent of the apartheid system of South Africa and has been a leading spokesman for non-violent social, racial and economic changes in his country. His stand has led to the withdrawal of his passport by the South African government on two occasions, the most recent being April 1981 and he is still without the document.
Efforts are being made by Allin and others to persuade the government of South Africa to restore Tutu's passport so he may travel to the Convention in New Orleans. Allin has recently conferred with South Africa's Ambassador to the United States Donald Sole and Chester Crocker, Undersecretary of State for Africa, and with other members of the administration in Washington, seeking affirmative action by the South African government.
Walter Cronkite, well-known correspondent for CBS-TV -- and an Episcopalian -- has been invited by Allin to interview Tutu.
On Sept. 8, the theme at the special event will be the unique concerns of women. Coretta Scott King of Atlanta, widow of the assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., has accepted an invitation to head the list of speakers that morning. A musician by training and early experience, she has been a prominent leader in anti-war and social action causes. She is the recipient of numerous awards which have recognized her commitment to justice and peace.
A second widow of a slain leader in the cause of peace has also been invited to speak at the Wednesday meeting. The widow of Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat, the Egyptian president who was assassinated last October, has bee n asked by Allin to share her personal feelings on the causes in which she and her husband have been involved.
A third possible speaker for Sept. 8 is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Allin has extended an invitation to her to speak and he expects to meet with her in June to follow up on the invitation.
A 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mother Teresa is known for her care of the dying poor and for lepers through the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded about 1950.
The final session of the special series, on Sept. 9, will bring together a panel of leaders from several crisis-plagued areas of the world for a structured discussion, with Episcopalian Thomas M. Franck of New York, director of research of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, as moderator.
The Rt. Rev. Robert H.A. Eames, Anglican Bishop of Down and Dromore, in Northern Ireland, a member of the panel, comes from a church that is in the midst of a country characterized by turmoil and trouble and will share his perspective on that critical situation. Eames led a Church of Ireland delegation to New York and Washington last year.
The Anglican Bishop of Iran, the Rt. Rev. H.B. Dehqani-Tafti, has accepted Allin's invitation, and comes out of the revolutionary turmoil of Iran. He is now living in exile in England. He is also President Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, a province of which Iran is a part.
Andrew Young, who was elected Mayor of Atlanta last year, will also be a participant. As clergyman, civil rights leader, Congressman, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Young has been at the forefront of social change issues for a number of years. He will join the panel on Sept. 9 to bring his own perspective to some of the issues facing the Church and world today.