Word: ecumenicist
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DIED. Willem A. Visser 't Hooft, 84, Dutch clergyman, theologian and ecumenicist who was the founding general secretary of the World Council of Churches from its formation in 1948 until 1966; of emphysema; in Geneva. The lifelong crusader for Christian unity saw the W.C.C. go from 135 denominations in 44 countries to 300 in 90 countries. A crusty, rather worldly theologian, Visser 't Hooft insisted that the council include churches in Communist countries, increased the role and influence of African and Asian churches in the organization and pioneered an ecumenical rapprochement with Rome, though his goal of bringing Roman Catholicism...
...intention to resign. A product of Boston's once-Irish urban ghetto, he was named Archbishop of the city in 1944, and subsequently proved to be one of the great school and church builders of American Catholicism. Affectionately human and totally unpredictable, Cushing was, more importantly, a pioneer ecumenicist in the open style of Pope John, a maverick prelate who found it possible, at various times, to endorse both the John Birch Society and the N.A.A.C.P. In poor health for many years-and, at 73, only two years away from the age limit suggested for episcopal resignations by Pope...
...School since 1959; of a heart attack; in Cambridge, Mass. Miller believed that "religion which is interested only in itself is worse than vanity; it is essentially incestuous, and throughout a distinguished career worked unceasingly to bring Christianity in tune with the secular realities of the times. A fervent ecumenicist, he called for an end to divisive tensions between Christians and Jews, between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Christianity, he argued, could only survive by bringing "new and deeper satisfaction to the human spirit...
Died. The Rev. Gustave Weigel, 57, Jesuit theologian at Maryland's Woodstock College, urbane and quick-witted author (Faith and Understanding in America), an editor of the Jesuit weekly America, and devoted ecumenicist; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. "Gloomy Gus" Weigel, as his friends called him for his visage, not his personality, played a major role in the 1960 Kennedy campaign with a speech stating that the church would not interfere with a Catholic president, acted as informal press secretary at the Vatican's Ecumenical Council, was widely hailed for his understanding of other religions, winning...
...spite of his retiring ways, Ramsey has already made considerable impact on the English Church. Like his predecessor, now Lord Fisher of Lambeth, he is a convinced ecumenicist, and serves as one of six co-presidents of the World Council of Churches. Last year he visited Moscow and Istanbul for theological discussions with Orthodox prelates on the prickly question of intercommunion. A close personal friend of Liverpool's Roman Catholic Archbishop John Heenan, who is the odds-on favorite to become the next English cardinal, Ramsey last year became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to lecture at Belgium...