wfn.org | New staff appointments at Episcopal Church Center

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-008
New staff appointments announced at Episcopal Church Center

by 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 « 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.

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.	

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens