ORIGINAL TEXT
Resolution:C016
Title:Commemoration of The Rev. Frederick B. Howden, Jr.
Topic:Church Calendar
Committee:13 - Prayer Book, Liturgy and Church Music
House of Initial Action:Bishops
Proposer:Diocese of Rio Grande

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That application be made to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to designate December 11 as the annual commemoration of the life and work of the Rev. Frederick B. 'Ted' Howden in the liturgical calendar Lesser Feasts & Fasts.


EXPLANATION

The Rev. Frederick B. 'Ted' Howden, the Rector of St. Andrew's parish in Roswell 1929-1941 and U.S. Army Chaplain to the 200th Coast Artillery from 1941 to his death in 1942, served with uncommon courage and distinction as a priest and soldier. He was captured at the Fall of Bataan in the Philippine Islands in 1942, and endured the Bataan Death March and incarceration in a Japanese prisoner of war camp where he died of starvation and disease.

The 2000 Convocation of the Diocese of the Rio Grande passed Resolution #6 establishing a day commemorating Fr. Howden's life and ministry on December 3 in the liturgical calendar of the Diocese of the Rio Grande and in the calendar of Lesser Feasts & Fasts of the American Church. However, recent information has become available documenting the actual date of his death to have been on December 11, 1942, a date heretofore not known with certainty, at Davao Prison Colony on the island of Mindanao. Furthermore, the 2000 request for inclusion in Lesser Feasts & Fasts was not made.

The Diocesan Council in its meeting on July 15, 2008 unanimously reaffirmed the 2000 Convocation resolution, and designated the date of the commemoration to be December 11.




SUPPORTING DOCUMENT
Howden LFF.pdf