Holiness Through Action

As trumpets blared, the procession of robed clerics marched slowly through the crowded nave of Washington's vaulted Gothic National Cathedral. In side the chancel, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger addressed the stocky, grey-haired cleric who succeeds him as Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church: "I, Arthur, do induct and install you, Right Reverend Father in God, John, into the office of Presiding Bishop, with all its rights, dignities, honors, and privileges. May our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth forevermore. Amen."

Thus last week, before a hushed congregation of 3,500 that included 90 Episcopal bishops, churchmen from every major U.S. Protestant body and four Roman Catholic representatives, the Rt. Rev. John Elbridge Hines was formally installed as the new chief spokesman of the nation's 3,500,000 Episcopalians.

Schizophrenic Family. Low Churchman Hines, 54, is the youngest "P.B." in the church's history. Son of a South Carolina physician, he comes from a large and "schizophrenic" family--four of the children were raised in his father's Presbyterian faith; five became Episcopalians like his mother. After graduating from the University of the South, he went on to earn a doctorate in theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. Hines became Bishop of Texas in 1955. He increased the number of priests in his diocese from 80 to 185, founded the lively Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.

Shortly before his installation, Hines was asked what he hopes to be remembered for when his tenure ends in 1978.

"For having survived," he answered. Actually, Hines is probably destined to be remembered, like his predecessor, as a churchman dedicated to righting social wrong. He accepts the judgment of Albert Camus on the churches: "What the world expects is that the Christian should speak out, loud and clear--and pay up personally."

No Retreat. This is what he told the church in his inaugural sermon, in which he also cited the late Dag Hammarskjoeld's aphorism: "In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action." The time has passed, said Hines, when Christians can retreat within their ecclesiastical for tress to recite prayers and polish brass. "The church is caught up today in the throes of a worldwide convulsion, the basic ferment of which is the thrust for freedom and dignity and hope on the part of the little people of the world. The church as an agent of God's reconciling love cannot survive this revolution as an observer."

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