Episcopal Press and News
News Brief
Episcopal News Service. March 22, 1984 [84063]
The Presiding Bishop has designated Sunday, May 6, 1984 as the fifth annual Age in Action Sunday. This year's theme is "The Gift of Experience -- The Wisdom of Age." The Episcopal Society for Ministry on Aging has again prepared a packet of resource materials. Among these are intergenerational, youth and children's designs and suggestions for the liturgy, sermon, coffee hour and follow-up. These will be mailed to all parishes in March. For further information, write: ESMA, RD #4, Box 146-A, Milford N.J. 08848.
The Rev. Canon Bernard C. Newman, S.T.D., died Saturday, Feb. 11 at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center here. He was 83. Awarded the title of honorary canon of Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh, Pa. in the 1940's, Newman began a twenty-year association with Trinity Church, Wall Street in 1948 as vicar of the "mother church" at Broadway and Wall. There he was instrumental in the creation of new outreach ministries to the Wall Street community. He retired in 1968 to his home in Wycoff, N.J., where he and his wife Leona were living at the time of his death. Requiem services were held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Midland Park, N.J. and at Trinity.
John Butcher, undersecretary of state for industry, has urged Britain's clergy to give politics up for Lent. He explained to Conservative Party members of his Coventry constituency: "First, it would allow those who suffer from this temptation to concentrate on their major tasks of saving souls and filling churches. Secondly, it would help to reduce the dangerous possibility that members of the public could begin to view the clergy with the same cynicism that they usually reserve for politicians." Churchmen reacted quickly to the speech. The bishop of Coventry, the Rt. Rev. John Gibbs, said he agreed that the church should keep out of party politics, but added: "Not to take seriously the great political issues of the day is nonsense. There are great issues on which the church should speak and on which it has a duty to speak."
On February 27, during the regular Monday evening rehearsal of the Washington Cathedral Choral Society, Dr. Paul Callaway announced his retirement as conductor of the forty-two year-old musical group at the close of the 1983-84 season. As founding director, he has steered the society since its inception. The board of directors announced at the same time that Callaway would be named music director emeritus. A search committee will be formed to find his successor. Callaway had retired as organist-choirmaster of Washington Cathedral in 1977. His successor at the cathedral, Canon Richard W. Dirksen, has agreed to serve as interim director of the Cathedral Choral Society for the 1984-85 season.
National Council members of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Inc., held their annual meeting in Florida and elected Jerry Balcom of Nashua, N.H. as new president. He has served as senior vice president for the past seven years. Balcom succeeds Robert F. Kerschner, Jr. of Lakeville, Mass., whose term ends in May. The Brotherhood, a fellowship of Episcopal men and boys, has about 400 chapters nationally and a number in other countries. It is currently seeking to expand the latter. Other officers elected included Jack Castle of Methuen, Mass., senior vice president; Joel Walker of New York City, secretary; and Christopher Fry, treasurer.
The Finance Department of the Executive Council, responding to the requests made at its computer training seminars, will shortly have software available for use by dioceses and parishes. This software will conform to the Standard Accounting Manual required by the Canons, and will be available by mid-year in formats suitable for most medium-size computers. In addition to providing for complete funds accounting as used by the church, it will maintain selective mailing lists, contribution records, and a "talent bank" of persons listed by various categories. A coalition of more than a dozen dioceses is participating to insure that their needs are met by the new programs. The parish program, although similar to the diocesan program in its accounting functions, will also have provision for most parish office needs, except for word-processing, which is easily available elsewhere. Parishes will be able to obtain this program in June for $600.
Dr. Pheme Perkins, Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College, has been selected to revise the New Testament sections of the Education for Ministry extension program at the School of Theology, University of the South. A graduate of St. John's College, Annapolis, she holds a master's degree and a doctorate from Harvard. She has published a number of books. Her special talent is making scholarly research understandable and available to the interested but non-specialist reader. A major change to New Testament materials will be an increase in the size of this section. There will be 12 more New Testament lessons than in the original version, making about 60 percent of the four-year course primarily biblical studies. The remainder of the textual material will include Church history and modern theologians. In addition to textual study, students meet in small groups once a week for theological reflection and worship.
Guy F. Lytle will join the faculty of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in fall, 1984 as Associate Professor of Church History. He follows the Rev. Samuel M. Garret, who retires in June. Lytle has been Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin since 1977. He received his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. During his graduate studies, Lytle spent several years at the University of Oxford. Lytle has edited three books and written scholarly articles and papers. In 1985-86 he will be a Research Fellow at the University of Tubigen, Germany, on a Humboldt Foundation Grant. Founded in 1893, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific is one of ten accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church, and a founding seminary of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a consortium of Protestant and Roman Catholic seminaries offering doctoral education.
The Most Rev. Arthur Kratz, Bispo Primaz of the Episcopal Church of Brazil since 1972, died here after a series of heart attacks. He was 62. The primate's health had been weak for more than a year. When he felt that he could not continue with his work load, he asked for a bishop coadjutor. The Very Rev. Claudio Gastal, Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Porto Alegre, was elected to that position, and his consecration is slated for the end of March. Kratz had the difficulty of shepherding the Brazilian church through a ten-year-plan of self-support which was successfully completed in December 1982. A conservative in theological matters, Kratz was often outspoken on social issues and gained the respect of civic and church leaders. He was instrumental in the formation of a council of churches which included the Roman Catholic Church.
The Rt. Rev. Charles A. Voegeli, former missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in Haiti, died on March 2 at his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. The 79-year-old bishop made news in 1964 when he was forced at gunpoint to leave Haiti at the express request of then President-for-Life Francois Duvalier. Voegeli continued to function as bishop in exile until 1971, when he retired and the present Bishop of Haiti, Luc Garnier, was elected. Voegeli, who never married, was well-known for making the Episcopal Church in Haiti a major patron for the arts. The murals at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince are considered among the finest in the world. They were done by a group of local painters to depict the biblical story in a truly Haitian fashion using faces with African features rather than European. The murals were featured several years ago by National Geographic Magazine.