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New Staff Appointments Announced at Episcopal Church Center

Episcopal News Service. February 19, 1999 [99-008]

Kathryn McCormick

(ENS) A number of new appointees have joined the Episcopal Church Center staff. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold has named Margaret (Midge) Roof, of Danville, Indiana, associate deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. She assumed her new post on February 1.

Roof served four years as president of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) network and, according to the Rev. David Perry, deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Roof "has broad contacts throughout the ecumenical and interfaith relations world. She brings a creative and committed heart and mind to the work of unity for all God's people."

Griswold applauded the appointment of Roof, "a seasoned ecumenist with broad experience, because I feel strongly that our ecumenical and interfaith dialogue needs to be expanded -- and for that we need additional staff. And as a lay person she brings a perspective that too often gets lost in the more rarified atmosphere of ecumenical discourse."

Acknowledging that her work will have many facets, Roof said in a short interview that "one of the things I'm most interested in is reopening conversations with interfaith partners. I see us reaching out in different directions."

Her background indicates a broad range of experience and interests that will be important in her new post

A graduate of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, a Roman Catholic college for women in Terre Haute, Indiana, she received a master's degree in English from Indiana University. It was while she studied for the master's that she became interested in literature of the Holocaust, she said. That study led her into work in Christian-Jewish relations.

She later served as consultant for videotapes and a study guide on Holocaust survivors. The materials were designed for use in Indiana public schools. She also was consultant to the Presiding Bishop's Committee on Christian-Jewish Relations and a member of the Episcopal-Jewish Relations Committee of EDEO.

Planning a meeting of the Workshop on Christian Unity in Indianapolis deepened her interest in ecumenical matters, Roof said. She served as EDEO representative on the Lutheran-Episcopal Joint Coordinating Committee for five years and has worked with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In her new position she serves as a member of the ecumenical team that is directly accountable to the presiding bishop, who is the chief ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church. She will plan and participate in dialogues, work through a number of organizations to promote interreligious relationships, and, among other duties, provide an information resource on ecumenical matters to leaders of the Episcopal Church and others.

"One of the Ecumenical Office's major tasks," she said, "is to encourage people to take up their vocation for Christian unity." Or, as she put it in the answer to a question posed to her during the selection process, "Ecumenism is not just another desk or program at 815, but the vocation of all the baptized."

A cradle Episcopalian, Roof is the wife of the Rev. John Roof, rector of St. Augustine's Church in Danville. The couple has three children.

In other appointments, the Rev. Ben E. Helmer has been named interim officer for Rural and Small Community Ministries. He joined the Congregational Ministries staff on February 1, after spending 5 1/2 years as the Diocese of West Missouri's Small Church Officer. Prior to that he worked in the Diocese of Western Kansas for 18 years, 11 of which he served as Archdeacon for Ministry Development. Helmer succeeds the Rev. Dr. Allen Brown, who retired in 1997.

Also new to Congregational Ministries is the Rev. John E. Robertson. He assumed the position of interim officer for Native American Ministries, on February 1, after serving as Canon Missioner for Indian Work in the Diocese of Minnesota and as special priest in charge of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Windom, Minnesota. Robertson succeeds Ginny Doctor, who returned to the Diocese of Alaska to resume her ministry there.