News Brief
Episcopal News Service. March 31, 1977 [77115]
The Rt. Rev. J. Stuart Wetmore, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of New York, has become the first Episcopalian to become affiliated with the Society of the Atonement in the 78-year history of the Roman Catholic congregation. Honorary membership was conferred on the bishop on May 1 "in recognition of outstanding interest and devotion, true Christian charity, and loyalty to the Friars of the Atonement." The affiliation entitles Bishop Wetmore to participate in the community's "spiritual benefits in life and in death and to visit any of its houses."
The Rev. Dr. Arthur Lee Kinsolving, who was rector of St. James' Episcopal Church in New York City from 1947 to 1969, died of cancer on March 28. Dr. Kinsolving, who was 77, was a member of a family that has given three bishops and many priests to the Episcopal Church. Before coming to St. James', he served at Amherst College and Grace Church in Amherst, Mass., was rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and rector of Trinity Church, Princeton, N.J. After his retirement from St. James', Dr. Kinsolving taught at St. Timothy's School and at St. Paul's School for Boys, both in Baltimore. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary Blagden; two sons, Augustus and Thomas, and a daughter, Anne Talbot.
April 24 has been proclaimed by Presiding Bishop John M. Allin as Episcopal College Day on which presidents and other representatives of the nine colleges which make up the Association of Episcopal Colleges will speak in Boston area churches. The special day will be part of a weekend during which the Association will meet and receptions honoring headmasters and high school juniors of Episcopal schools in the Boston area will be held.
Dr. Fredrica H. Thompsett, professor of ecclesiastical history at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, has been awarded a fellowship to work on a book about popular reactions to the English Reformation during the 16th century. Dr. Thompsett will spend a year in New York City working on the project, entitled, "The Popular Polemical Literature of Mid-Tudor England: A Case Study in Religious and Social Dimensions of Tudor Thought." The fellowship was granted for the academic year 1977-78 by the Association of Theological Schools.
A special fund to help members of the Anglican Church in Uganda has been launched here in memory of Archbishop Janani Luwum who was allegedly killed in an automobile accident in February but is now generally believed to have been murdered with two Christian members of President Idi Amin's cabinet. The appeal was launched by Archbishop Stuart Blanch of York; Peter Harden, chairman of the Council of St. John's College; and Dame Diana Reeder Harris, president of the Church Missions Society in London. The purpose is to provide an exchange program between British and Ugandan theological students and clergy and to provide ministers of the Church of Uganda with suitable theological books.
The Episcopal Sisters of Charity have recently purchased the former Boulder City Hospital -- a white brick, red-tile-roofed Spanish Mission style structure on two acres of land -- in order to establish an American Convent. One wing of the hospital will house the sisters from the Las Vegas Convent and postulants. The other three wings -- which will require $100,000 to convert them to convent use -- will provide a center for retreats, marriage encounters, and cursillos. The X-ray room, operating theatre and recovery room will be converted into a 150-seat chapel, and a conference/dining facility will be built adjacent to the present kitchen.
The DeKoven Foundation for Church Work has been named to the National Register of Historic Places, a directory maintained by the National Parks Service of buildings and sites important for their historic, cultural, architectural or archaelogical value. DeKoven buildings -- on a beautiful 40-acre site along the shore of Lake Michigan -- house the Sisters of St. Mary, who maintain it as a conference and retreat center and as the site of St. Mary's Camp. Formerly the campus of Racine College, the DeKoven buildings are considered one of the country's finest examples of English Gothic architecture. The Foundation memorializes the name of one of the leaders of the Episcopal Church, Dr. James DeKoven, who served as warden of Racine College from 1859 to 1879.