Pioneer Bishop Finds Rainbow’s End as Good as Gold

--In her first sermon since her election as the first woman bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Communion, the Rev. Barbara C. Harris compared the Episcopal Church’s actions to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s campaigns for the presidency. Like Jackson’s “Rainbow Coalition,” the church’s movement gives “new hope . . . and new vision to hundreds of thousands” who have felt alienated and ignored, said Harris, 58, who is black. The church is trying to include everyone in the mainstream “of God’s justice, grace, brotherhood and sisterhood,” she said. Harris told a congregation of 50 that the previous elections of two black priests as coadjutor bishops also show that “a fresh wind is blowing across this church of ours.” The one-time Sun Oil Co. public relations executive was elected as suffragan, or associate, bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, the nation’s largest. After the services at Philadelphia’s Church of the Advocate, she said she was “deeply honored” to accept the position but could not answer questions until a Tuesday news conference.

--A former U.S. chess champion proved to be no match for a computer called Hitech in a best-of-four contest in New York. Arnold S. Denker, 74, U.S. champ from 1944 to 1946, said: “I think I learned a great deal from Hitech,” which played Denker to a draw in the first game and then won the remaining three. The portable Hitech had some help, though, through its telephone connection to a larger computer at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., enabling it to figure 165,000 chess positions per second. Hans Berliner, who spent 18 years developing Hitech and is its main programmer, said it still has shortcomings: “We do have to enter its opponents’ moves into Hitech” and it “can’t appreciate the drama revolving around each of its moves.” Denker was a good loser, saying the computer played “brilliantly” in the fourth game at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village. But he does want a rematch.

--Radio commentator Paul Harvey was toasted for his 50-year career at a $150-a-plate dinner attended by about 1,000 celebrities, journalists and advertisers. Those at the benefit for the Museum of Broadcast Communications included the Rev. Billy Graham, ABC Radio Network President Aaron Daniels and radio talk show host Larry King. President Reagan, honorary chairman of the Chicago dinner, sent his regards but did not attend. Harvey, 70, is heard on more than 1,300 stations nationwide and on 400 foreign channels, with 22 million listeners each week.