By Garland Pollard

LOUISVILLE, KY – The Diocese of Southwest Florida looked entirely different back in 1973, when The Episcopal Church met for twelve days in Louisville, Kentucky. The late Clifford Morehouse, writing in The Southern Cross, wrote in a preview to the convention that the church would be facing some of the “most vital controversial issues ever to come before a single Convention.”

These proposals included dealing with women as priests and bishops, revising the Book of Common Prayer, proposing changes in canons governing the marriage of the divorced, dialoguing with other denominations, consolidating the churches seminaries from eight to four; restructuring the General Convention and addressing the “quotas” for dioceses.

Morehouse, a communicant at St. Boniface, was tragically killed in a car accident on Siesta Key in 1977 along with his wife, Ellen. He had a leading role in The Episcopal Church as President of Morehouse-Barlow Publishing Co., which then published The Living Church.

Today, The Living Church is still a leading source for information on today’s General Convention.

Below, the men who represented the Diocese back in 1973.

garland

Director of Communications at Diocese of Southwest Florida

Garland Pollard is Director of Communications of the Diocese of Southwest Florida.