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Monday, July 10, 2000
By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
DENVER -- The Rev. George Louis William Werner likes to talk about his summers as a youth in the Borscht Belt when his father ran the athletic events at Kutsher Country Club in Monticello, N.Y. Werner's favorite shtick was hitting a golf ball from a tee held in the mouth of the club owner's son.
While Werner's election to the second-most powerful position in the 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church was expected -- he served as vice president of the House of Deputies for the past six years -- the New York City native took no chances. Leading up to the 10-day General Convention he courted the votes of black, lesbian, gay and female clergy and lay deputies, and as a final touch, he asked Diana Frade, wife of the bishop of Honduras, to nominate him for the post on Friday.
"She runs an orphanage and is very well loved," Werner said.
Werner, who needed 407 votes to win on the first ballot, received 431. The Rev. Reynolds Smith Cheney II of Memphis, Tenn., received 232 votes and the Rev. Randolph K. Dales of New Hampshire, 149.
The role of president in the House of Deputies is critical for several reasons. Not only does the president convene the House during the General Conventions, but he or she also appoints individuals to legislative committees and co-chairs the church's Executive Council, which administers the church between the triennial conventions.
"I'm a colleague of many of the people out there," Werner said. "I have very close friends in various groups. My strength is building unique coalitions. I like to bring different kinds of people together from across the table because my issue is community."
In the Pittsburgh diocese, regarded as one of the most conservative in the Episcopal Church, Werner is considered a liberal. Yet within the church as a whole, he is more of a moderate. As is his nature, he deflects such political tags with self-deprecating humor, a tool he uses often in negotiating church politics.
His 20-year tenure as dean of Trinity Cathedral spanned the term of three bishops, and although the various bishops exercised different leadership styles and represented a broad range of theological views, Werner related well to each of them, prompting one admirer to compare him to St. Paul's phrase of being "all things to all people."
As president of the House of Deputies, which is made up of four clerical and four lay deputies elected from each of the church's dioceses, Werner's coalition-building skills will be tested.
The General Convention is the governing body of the Episcopal Church, and it is composed of the 800-plus member House of Deputies, and the 300-member House of Bishops. Legislation must pass both houses to be enacted. While the House of Bishops tends to be more staid, the House of Deputies can be quite feisty.
One example of that occurred Friday afternoon when several deputies, who had been vocal during discussions on gay and lesbian legislation, found salt scattered under their tables. The incident -- salt is a historical symbol of exorcism -- caused an uproar.
Werner, who was presiding over the afternoon session, immediately asked for and received a vote to suspend the order of business so the salt could be removed. He suggested the time be used for prayer, and hundreds of deputies spontaneously joined hands in the cavernous hall at the Denver Convention Center to sing and pray.
"It's like Winston Churchill said, 'Democracy is the worst of all forms of government except all the rest,' " Werner said. "The challenge is that at different times you get your particular body to be better than it usually is, knowing that you will fall back. But we have moments of grace that are just so beautiful."
Werner served churches in Connecticut and New Hampshire before becoming dean of Trinity Cathedral in 1979, a position he held until his retirement late last year. He has been a deputy to every General Convention since 1970. He also has been a trustee of the church pension fund and a member of the Standing Commission on Health as well as the committee on the State of the Church.
His leadership in Pittsburgh has included everything from co-founding the Bethlehem Haven Shelter for Women and the Dollar Energy Fund to co-chairing with City Councilman Sala Udin the Collaborative on Market Place at Fifth and Forbes, formed to organize a compromise plan on Mayor Murphy's plans for Downtown development.
Werner said he hoped to imbue the House of Deputies with the same kind of shared spirit of endeavor that he has witnessed in missionary work, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Along with other members of the church's Executive Council, Werner spent time in Honduras building houses for the homeless.
"When you're doing mission work, you're working hard on a strategy for other people," he said. "It releases a power that is miraculous and mysterious. We have a church that exists around the world [since the Episcopal Church is one of 37 self-governing provinces in the 70-million member Anglican Communion]. We're looking at the whole world."
Werner, 62, still plays golf -- his nine-handicap game, he said, is "effective and ugly" -- but the retired dean of Pittsburgh's Trinity Cathedral doesn't hit the links as regularly now. And after his election Saturday as president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, the Aleppo resident probably will have even less time for the game. 
George Louis William Werner 
Date of birth: Feb. 3, 1938 Place of birth: New York City Now lives in: Aleppo Education: Bachelor's degree from Lafayette College, 1959. Master's degree from Berkeley Divinity School, Yale University, 1962. Career: Ordained, 1963. Curate, 1962-1964, Milford, Conn. Rector, 1964-1968, St. Luke's, Bridgeport, Conn. Rector, 1968-1979, Grace Church, Manchester, N.H. Dean, Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh, 1979-1999 Community involvement: Chairman, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. Co-founder, Bethlehem Haven Shelter for Women. Co-founder, Dollar Energy Fund. Co-chairman (with Pittsburgh City Councilman Sala Udin), Collaborative on Market Place at Fifth and Forbes. Executive Committee, UPMC Health System. Chairman, Committee on Oversight of Organ Transplants. Allegheny County Task Force on the Prevention of Violence.