Episcopal Press and News
Bishop Haynsworth Accepts World Mission Directorate
Episcopal News Service. February 3, 1983 [83026]
NEW YORK (DPS, Feb. 3) -- Presiding Bishop John M. Allin has named a veteran missionary bishop to succeed the Rev. Samuel Van Culin as executive for World Mission in Church and Society at the Episcopal Church Center.
In announcing the appointment of the Rt. Rev. G. Edward Haynsworth in late January, Allin said, "Bishop Haynsworth has known and experienced our mission work for many years. Most recently, with his office here at the Church Center, he has come to know our world mission unit and its workings. It is most gratifying that we will have someone with his background and experience to work in this position."
Haynsworth joined the Church Center staff in 1980 as Latin American Partnership Officer after a 20-year career in Central America that culminated in his service as Bishop of Nicaragua and, later, bishop in charge of El Salvador. He still retains the latter post.
Van Culin is leaving the Church Center in April to become the secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council. He was named executive in 1976 after serving as world secretary and executive secretary for Africa and the Middle East.
The bishop takes over a unit that is responsible for a range of ministry from missionaries through relief and development to ecumenism. One of its most vital mandates is working with the overseas and Latin America dioceses of the Episcopal Church as they move toward autonomy and re-affiliation with other Anglican provinces.
The range of people is as broad as that of program. Beyond the Church Center staff, the unit supports 80 missionaries serving in 31 countries, recruits, screens and trains men and women serving in the Volunteers for Mission program, provides financial support for more than 1,000 indigenous lay and clerical leaders in overseas dioceses and offers scholarship assistance to 80 men and women engaged in theological training.
The extra-budgetary programs of the United Thank Offering and the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief -- through which the Church meets capital and human needs and shelters and feeds refugees -- are also part of the unit.
Accounting, auditing, communication and development assistance are offered through the unit in cooperation with other Church Center staff as well as support for those who speak and work in Church and human rights arenas.
Attending a meeting of Ninth (Latin American) Province Episcopalians shortly after his appointment, Haynsworth reflected on the new task. "The job will open up some new areas for me," he said. "I am familiar with Latin America and close to the progress toward autonomy being made in the Ninth Province and some other places. I don't know Africa as well."
"Sam Van Culin's leadership was right on target," he asserted, adding "we'll have to find ways to make up for his tremendous knowledge and experience regarding Africa."
A native of South Carolina, he is a graduate of the Citadel and received his theological training at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. He was ordained priest in 1950. He served congregations in South Carolina and Georgia and on the staff of the diocese of Georgia until he went to El Salvador as a missionary in 1960.
His years as a missionary saw him in Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador before he was consecrated to Nicaragua in 1969. He has served on the executive committee of the Overseas Bishops for 10 years and as chairman for five. He became bishop in charge of El Salvador in 1979.
He returned to El Salvador just last month in the wake of the murder of seven men by unidentified terrorists on a Church farm. That trip brought him into negotiation with United States and senior Salvadoran officials as well as back into the pastoral work for the victims' families and colleagues.
Haynsworth married Elizabeth Veronee in 1948 and they have three children.