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Episcopal News Service. September 15, 1989 [89156I]

• The Rt. Rev. Rogers S. Harris was installed as Bishop of Southwest Florida in an investiture service-on September 9 in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in St. Petersburg. Bishop Harris, 59, was previously suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina from 1985 to 1989. Ordained deacon in 1957 and priest in 1958, Bishop Harris holds degrees from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and Virginia Theological Seminary. He has been committed to evangelism and to social ministry and active in Cursillo, which promotes spiritual growth within small groups of believers, and in Kairos, a prison outreach program. He is a member of the theology committee of the House of Bishops and a trustee of the University of the South. Bishop Harris succeeds Bishop E. Paul Haynes, who died in May 1988.
• Nancy Axell, chair of the Task Force on Total Ministry and former lay academy dean from the Diocese of California, served as Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning's representative to a Laity Exchange network conference at Bad Boll in West Germany and the 23rd Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag (Church Day). Axell accompanied nearly 150,000 people for the five-day gathering at Olympic Stadium in Berlin to explore the theme "Our Time in God's Hands." She reports being profoundly struck "that so many people, mostly under 40, were concerned about the destiny of their society and the physical environment."
• The Rev. Tanya Vonnegut Beck has become the first woman priest serving in the Diocese of Southwest Florida. Beck, previously priest-in-charge at St. Luke's in Shelbyville, Indiana, and human relations director of the city of Indianapolis, has functioned as a deacon since her recent move to Florida to accept a job as chaplain of St. Paul's Episcopal School in Clearwater. Ordained a priest in the Diocese of Indianapolis in 1977, she was accepted as a priest by the Rt. Rev. Rogers S. Harris in one of his first official acts as Bishop of Southwest Florida. His predecessor, the late Bishop E. Paul Haynes, opposed the 1976 ruling that permitted women to be priests in the Episcopal Church.
• Episcopal Church Sunday school students from Massachusetts and New York won the top prizes in the 20th annual essay contest sponsored by Church Life Insurance Corporation. Students from nine Middle Atlantic and New England states submitted essays on the subject: "What can I learn from great Christians of the past that will help me today?" Pettlyn Job of Emmanuel Church in Brooklyn, New York, was awarded the $150 first prize in the senior category. Mollie Zeigler of St. John's Grace Church in Buffalo, New York, won first prize in the grades 7-9 division, and Frances Abbot of St. James' Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was judged best essayist in the grades 4-6 group.
• The Rev. Emily Gardiner Neal, deacon and president of the Episcopal Healing Ministry Foundation, has been disabled by an arterial embolism. A press release issued by the foundation states: "It will be necessary for Mrs. Neal to receive private, skilled nursing care for an indefinite period, during which she will be unable to continue her ministry through the foundation." Neal's ministry began over 30 years ago with the publication of her first book, A Reporter Finds God Through Spiritual Healing. Over the years, she has led healing missions in churches of many denominations throughout the United States and abroad. In 1987, she was named president of the foundation, established to promote a broadened practice of the sacramental healing ministry throughout the church.
• The Rev. William C. Hibbert represented the Episcopal Church at the National Partners' conference hosted by the Boy Scouts of America. A highlight of the conference on August 4 was a tour of the 12th National Scout Jamboree at Bowling Green, Virginia. More than 30,000 scouts and leaders from every state camped together under the banner, "The Adventure Begins with America's Youth." The Episcopal Church operates 1,227 Boy Scout units, with 35,809 members. Representatives from 38 national organizations met in conference and discussed issues of mutual concern including hunger, illiteracy, drug abuse, child abuse, and youth employment.
• Laurie Boone, head of All Saints' (Episcopal) Day School in Carmel, California, has been chosen as one of the five 1989 recipients of the prestigious National Distinguished Principals Award from the National Association of Elementary Schools (NAES). Boone, who has served as head of All Saints' School for 13 years, received national recognition among Episcopal educators for her foundational work leading to the recent publication Church/School Relations Workbook. The publication examines the purposes, roles and responsibilities, and canonical structures of Episcopal schools. A newsletter released by the National Association of Episcopal Educators commends Boone for her work at All Saints' School and describes her leadership as "exemplary," embodying "a ministry of empowerment."