wfn.org | Bishop Cannon's library housed at Lake Junaluska

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 31, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.          {454}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story. 

By United Methodist News Service

Personal belongings of the late United Methodist Bishop William R.
Cannon - including more than 2,300 books and a bronze bell given to him
by Pope Paul VI at the end of the Second Vatican Council - have been
given a permanent home at the World Methodist Council headquarters and
museum at Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Widely known as a church historian and ecumenist, Cannon died May 11,
1997, in Atlanta at the age of 81.  

James P. and Dorothy Poole of Atlanta, longtime friends of the bishop,
provided money to reconstruct and furnish a room at the World Methodist
Council building to house the library. Those present at a July 10
dedication ceremony for the library included retired Bishop Earl G. Hunt
Jr., of Lake Junaluska,  president of the Friends of the Museum
organization;  Frances M. Alguire, New Buffalo, Mich., chairperson of
the World Methodist Council; and Geoffrey Wainwright, a renowned
Methodist theologian and ecumenist from England.

Cannon relatives Dudley and Marguerite Meadows of Signal Mountain,
Tenn., also attended.  The Meadowses, who often traveled with the
bishop, contributed the walnut casework that housed the 2,350 books in
the bishop's longtime residence on Peachtree Road in Atlanta.

Nearly 100 cartons of books were unpacked and shelved. World Methodist
Council General Secretary Joe Hale said the volumes cover 20 centuries
of Christian history, art, philosophy; Catholic, Protestant and Reformed
theology; and a large section on John Wesley and Methodist history.

The books also include some read by the bishop as a child, a biography
section and an extensive collection of English literature.

The bishop willed to the council the cross and chain he wore, along with
ecclesiastical gifts presented to him by several popes.  The bell from
Pope Paul VI is valuable, Hale said, because only a few were cast for
the non-Catholic observers invited to the Second Vatican Council.

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United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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