wfn.org | PLAN FOR ECUMENICAL BISHOP

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

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Feb. 7, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.2.1.4]

WALES: CHURCHES PLAN ECUMENICAL BISHOP

(Cedric Pulford ENI) Five Welsh Churches are to consider a plan to
appoint
the world's first ecumenical bishop.

Supporters believe that, if the plan is approved by the Churches, Wales
will have the world's first "ecumenical bishop". He would belong equally
and fully to each of the denominations. The aim is to have the bishop in
post by 1 January 2000.

Gethin Abraham-Williams, General Secretary of the Covenanted Churches in
Wales said:"There are uniting Churches that have bishops, but we know of
no
other case of a bishop who would represent Churches that are staying
separate." He stressed however, that the proposal was part of a
"brick-on-brick" approach to eventual full visible unity.

The notion of a bishop within their structure would mean a big change
for
some of the Churches which will consider the plan. One of the Churches
involved, the  Church in Wales, has an episcopal tradition, but the
other
four Churches are non-episcopal: the Presbyterian Church of Wales, the
Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Covenanted Baptist
Churches.

The five Churches are members of one of the main ecumenical
organisations
in Wales, the Covenanted Churches in Wales. The Covenanted Churches have
18
months to make their responses.