wfn.org | NewsBriefs from the Episcopal News Service

[John Rollins <rollins@intac.com>]

98-2232
NewsBriefs

Australian church to consider women bishops
     The General Synod of the Anglican Church of
Australia has called for the  preparation of draft
legislation for women bishops.
     The draft, together with a discussion  paper, is to
be ready by the end of 1999 for circulation around the 23
dioceses of the  Australian Church. A seven-member
working group representing a cross-section of views  in
the church has been named to assemble the materials
needed to write the papers. Only three provinces of the
Anglican Communion now elect women to the  episcopate-the
Episcopal Church in the USA, the Anglican Church of
Canada, and the  Anglican Church in Aotearoa/New
Zealand/Polynesia. Eleven female bishops  participated in
last August's Lambeth Conference.
     The only other province that is moving towards women
in the episcopate is the  Church in the Province of
Southern Africa.

Reinstated Colorado priest accepts call in Minnesota
        (Episcopal Life) Just days after Bishop Jerry
Winterrowd reinstated the Rev.  Sandra Wilson as rector
of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Wilson announced in
September that she had accepted a call from a parish in
Minneapolis.
            Wilson, 45, a member of Executive Council who
was elected president of the  Union of Black
Episcopalians in July, was temporarily inhibited last
March by  Winterrowd after three women made formal
complaints of sexual and ethical misconduct.
Wilson, a nominee for suffragan bishop of the Diocese of
Maryland at that time,  withdrew from the selection
process.
            After a diocesan response team conducted an
investigation and made its  confidential report to
Winterrowd, the bishop issued a single-sentence statement
in  August that he and Wilson "had entered into an
agreement which addresses the subject  matter of the
inquiry."
            During her sermon on Sept. 6, Wilson told her
congregation the decision to leave  was hers alone. "In
light of what we've been through I cannot stay," she
said.
            Dismissing suggestions that she had been
asked to leave, Wilson told Episcopal  Life she had been
part of the search by the Minneapolis parish since
January. "When this  thing [the investigation] was over,
they called me and I accepted," she said.
          Wilson, who said the complaints were raised to
prevent her election to the  episcopacy in Maryland, said
she intends to remain on Executive Council as a
representative from Province 6.

U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue begins Round 10
(ELCA) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the
National  Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) began the
tenth round of the Lutheran-Roman  Catholic Dialogue in
the United States Sept. 3 in Chicago. The theme of this
round is,  "The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its
Structures and Ministries."
          "Koinonia" is an anglicized Greek word that
appears several times in the  Christian Bible and is
translated as "fellowship, a close mutual relationship;
participation,  sharing in; partnership; contribution,
gift." The dialogue will take up issues of koinonia  as
they relate to "ordained ministry and structures of
church unity," according to a  communique from the
dialogue.
          The NCCB and the U.S.A. National Committee of
the Lutheran World Federation  initiated the first round
of the dialogue in 1965. The dialogue has produced a
number of  common statements on such topics as
Scriptures, saints and justification by faith.
There was a five-year break between the ninth and tenth
rounds while the  churches studied a "Joint Declaration
on the Doctrine of Justification," declaring that
certain 16th-century condemnations of each other's
teachings no longer apply.

Bexley Hall and Trinity Lutheran seminaries announce
partnership
(ELCA) Bexley Hall Seminary in Rochester, New York, and
Trinity Lutheran  Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, have
reached an agreement to provide theological  education to
Lutherans, Episcopalians and seminarians of other
denominations on  Trinity's Columbus campus.
          The agreement calls for Episcopal students to
be fully integrated into Trinity's  program. Special
arrangements are being made to provide ecclesiology,
spiritual  formation, fellowship and worship
opportunities for Episcopalian students.
          "We are returning to our roots," said Dr. John
Kevern, dean of Bexley Hall.  "Bishop Philander Chase
created Bexley Hall in 1824 not far from present-day
Columbus."
          "To our knowledge this is among the first such
full partnerships in the United  States," said Trinity's
president, the Rev. Dennis A. Anderson. "There are other
schools  developing agreements to offer classes on the
other's campus, but this agreement's goal  is ultimately
to offer the master of divinity degree of each school at
the Columbus site."
          Last fall trustees of the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Philadelphia, another  ELCA seminary,
approved an agreement that was ratified in January by
trustees of  General Theological Seminary in New York
City outlining "13 avenues of cooperation"  between the
two schools.

Canadian churches ask government to review state-
sponsored  gambling
(ENI) Eighteen Canadian church leaders have sent a joint
letter to the nation's  justice minister calling for an
independent review of state-sponsored gambling in Canada.
     David Pfrimmer, of the Lutheran Office for Public
Policy, said, "What's  remarkable is the unanimous
ecumenical consensus among the Christian churches in
Canada that state-sponsored gambling is bad public
policy, bad economics and bad public  morality."
          There are more than 50 casinos in Canada, and
there are plans for more to be  built.  Recent estimates
state that the casinos earn profits of  $1.75 billion a
year; federal  and provincial governments take almost
half this amount as taxes and duties. A national
magazine, Macleans, reported in May that the average
Canadian household was gambling $840 each year.
          The churches, which are members of the Canadian
Council of Churches, the  nation's principal ecumenical
organization, demonstrated their united opposition to
gambling by sending the letter to Anne McLellan, minister
of justice and attorney general  of Canada. Among those
signing the letter was Jim Boyles, general secretary of
the  Anglican Church of Canada.
          The church leaders wrote: "The promotion of
state-sponsored gambling is at an all-time high in
Canada." They asked the government to establish an
independent  body "to review the social, economic and
legal impact of legal and illegal gambling and
charitable gaming in Canada, and to make recommendations
regarding public policy."
          The leaders also called for Canada's 10
provinces to "place a moratorium on  gambling expansion
until such time as a public review has been completed and
policy  recommendations have been enacted." The letter
said the church leaders understood the  provinces' need
for revenue. "However, it is difficult to recognize
government's duty to  uphold the public interests in
provincial plans to increase the number of gamblers and
the frequency with which they gamble and lose."

Candidates sought for interim bodies
The Joint Standing Committee on Nominations is seeking
candidates to stand for  nomination to Executive Council
and the General Board of Examining Chaplains, as well  as
trustees for the Church Pension Fund and the General
Theological Seminary in New  York.
          At the 2000 General Convention, the committee
will present a list of nominees  that equals twice the
number of vacancies in all offices. Photos and
biographical sketches  of all nominees will be published
before convention.
          Information about each position, as well as
nomination forms, may be obtained  from the General
Convention Office at 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY
10017.
          Completed forms (each must include biographical
information and a picture) must  be submitted to the
office no later than December 1, 1998.

Conference on ministry renewal
          "Living the Covenant," a conference on ministry
renewal focusing on baptismal  ministry is scheduled to
be held June 9-13 at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
The  conference is designed for "anyone who cares about
baptismal ministry in the 21st  century," including
bishops and diocesan and congregational leaders,
according to Rev.  H. Boone Porter, chairman of the
event.
          Keynote speakers will include the Rt. Rev.
Steven Charleston, former bishop of Alaska  and current
chaplain at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.; Timothy
Sedgwick, professor of  Christian ethics at Virginia
Theological Seminary; the Rev. Charles R. Wilson,
consultant, trainer and researcher, and the Rev. Suzanne
Watson, canon to the ordinary  for the Diocese of Iowa
and president of the North American Association for the
Diaconate (NAAD).
          The consultation will be convened by Associated
Parishes and by NAAD. Other  sponsors include The Church
Army, Living Stones and Sindicators.

People

Kathryn McCormick has been appointed associate director
of the Office of News and  Information, with a special
portfolio as managing editor of the Episcopal News
Service.  She brings to her new position 26 years of
experience as reporter and editor with  newspapers in
Indiana, Massachusetts, including 18 years with Newsday,
the daily  newspaper for Long Island.

The Rev. Dr. Johncy Itty has been appointed Social
Justice Officer for the Episcopal  Church. Born and
raised in the United States, he was ordained in the
Church of South  India, taught political science at City
College of New York and was the associate for  human
rights in the office of the Anglican Observer at the
United Nations.

Lidia Soto-Harmon has been appointed deputy director of
the President's Interagency  Council charged with
implementing the agreements made at the UN's Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. She has
a depth of experience in  working with immigrants,
Hispanics, women and other underserved communities,
including four years as director of Targeted Outreach
Programs for the Fannie Mae  Foundation and as policy
analyst in the International Labor Affairs Bureau.