Cynthia Wedel Dies; Directed Church Councils

Cynthia Clark Wedel, the only woman elected president of the National Council of Churches and who later headed the World Council of Churches, has died of cancer at 77.

Mrs. Wedel died Sunday at Goodwin House, an Episcopal retirement home, the National Council of Churches said Wednesday.

A laywoman in an era when women could not be ordained in the Episcopal Church, Mrs. Wedel had been a member of the national council’s board of directors from 1955 to 1969, when she became president, a post she held until 1972. She was president of the world council from 1975 to 1983.

Her selection to succeed Arthur S. Flemming, former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare, as president of the national council came in the first contested election in the council’s history. Her opponent was the Rev. Albert B. Cleague of the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit.

Mrs. Wedel, who received 387 of the 480 votes cast, was asked to withdraw by a group of black church leaders. She refused, saying that although she was a lifelong champion of minorities, she considered herself as a woman to be among that number and would stay in the contest.

Earlier, Mrs. Wedel, a member of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Alexandria, Va., was the first woman to be associate general secretary for Christian unity, a position in the national council that she held from 1965 to 1969. She was responsible for ecumenical relations.

Mrs. Wedel also was president of United Church Women (now known as Church Women United) between 1965 and 1968.