“I think we continue to muddle along with enthusiasm,” Jefferts Schori said. “You can’t say it’s not enthusiastic. I look at the shift in terms of relationships across the communion in the last 10 or 15 years and I’m enormously heartened by that. Far more dioceses and congregations in this church have partnerships with the communion than was true a number of years ago, and in that sense the Anglican Communion on the ground is alive and real and growing in vitality because people are engaged in mission work together in the broadest sense.
“Yes, there is some conflict in the highest governing levels in the Anglican Communion,” she said. “The reality is that mission work is growing and increasing.”
“Mission work” as in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and making disciples of all nations….? U-m-m-m, not so much.
Please, God forgive her, for she knows not what she says.
“All is well!”
” …he hopes that as suffragan bishop he can help the church become more inclusive. … We hope to be more hospitable to the multicultural nature of the population of Alabama and reach out for other sources of people. The Episcopal Church has always been a completely welcoming and inclusive church for all people, of all sorts.”
This is logical babble: if they are inclusive, how can they be more inclusive? The multicultural schtick is another matter: if that is a deficiency now, what is to be done about it? But the last assertion seems to say that multiculturalism isn’t a problem now at all in Alabama.
All this interview spins out the happy news, despite the fact that most observers are struck by the Alabama cultural problem not being one of multiculturalism or its xenophobic opposite, but rather that of reconciling divergent constituents (often characterized by race) of one overwhelmingly predominant Southern culture.
What’s with the press’ almost continuous mentioning of KJS’ being a pilot? To be a current private pilot (meaning that one holds a valid medical certificate and has flown a certain number of take-offs and landings within 90 days), these days, means that one is being paid too much. Further, it really does not take much skill to obtain a license. In 1983, my flight instructor told me that he could teach a monkey to fly, and my initial aptitude wasn’t much greater!
There was a running gag in Charles Schulz’s [i]Peanuts[/i] where Lucy would teach her brother Linus absurd nonsense- for example, that telephone poles were actually special trees grown by the government. And in the last panel of each gag, Charlie Brown would be standing nearby, clutching his stomach, looking like he’s about to be sick, saying, “I can’t stand it…” or “ouch… it hurts” or something similar.
In any case, I now sympathise with good old Chuck. My head hurts and I’m a little nauseous after reading that interview. How can the Church be vital and healthy if “there is some conflict in the highest governing levels in the Anglican Communion”? And why are we doing Mission anyway? The poor we will always have with us, but the opportunity to share Christ and save a soul is a once in a lifetime event. Arrrrrgh.
I was at a Q and A with KJS yesterday afternoon after the installation of Sloan. Her “theology” is all about the here and now, with nothing at all about sin and redemption. There are no boundaries about what one can believe, yet there are strict boundaries related to church order that one absolutely cannot cross. The sad thing is that most of the folk who were in the room appeared to agree with her. Parsley certainly did. ECUSA is finished. Kyrie eleison!
kb9gzg, I once (1976-1977) taught Iranian helicopter pilots flight theory and operations and took my turns in the air to interpret instructor pilots’ instructions to the Iranians. Not to brag, but trust me, that took nerves of steel. Fixed wing is a piece of cake compared to that, but the news about Schori has to stress her other credentials, since her leadership in the Church is so lacking.
Alice–What a riot! Here is a time for the word of the year from one of the dictionaries–w00t (with zeros)–being the computer gamers’ cry of exultation, related to “hoot.”
[blockquote]You can’t say it’s not enthusiastic. I look at the shift in terms of relationships across the communion in the last 10 or 15 years and I’m enormously heartened by that. [/blockquote]
Umm,…the only thing enthusiastic is the arguing.
[blockquote][b]Far more dioceses and congregations in this church have partnerships with the communion than was true a number of years ago[/b], and in that sense the Anglican Communion on the ground is alive and real and growing in vitality because people are engaged in mission work together in the broadest sense.
“Yes, there is some conflict in the highest governing levels in the Anglican Communion,” she said. “The reality is that mission work is growing and increasing.” [/blockquote]
Apparently, KJS has had a turn of heart. The diocese of San Joaquin (and soon Fort Worth) has a partnership with Southern Cone; Truro, Falls Church, Grace and St. Stephen’s, etc., have a partnership with Nigeria, Christ Church, Savannah, etc., have partnerships with Uganda. Those churches and dioceses are “alive and real and growing in vitality.” The rest are fake and moribund. For example here is the statistics of the diocese of the Alabama, [url=http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_113200870741PM.pdf ]here[/url]. Down, down, down.
Birmingham News: So how are things going with avioding that Iceberg?
KJS: Well, I think the deck chairs are looking a lot better since we’ve re-arranged them so that they match in color and are grouped according to height.
“…it’s far better to have leaders who come with a solid, moral, ethical base and lead others in fruitful directions.”
“Fruitful directions”? Does that include away from the redemptive Gospel of Christ?
It’s certainly not a case of “like mother, like daughter”…
Sad…
[blockquote]“Fruitful directions� Does that include away from the redemptive Gospel of Christ? [/blockquote]
I think she meant “fruitful” in its most literal sense.
And that’s all I’m gonna say.
Hey, they didn’t ask her about the rip-roaring success of 20-20 and other missionary initiatives to double the size of the ECUSA/TEC by 2020, did they? Probably because they haven’t heard of them. Lost in the gay agenda and MDGs, no doubt! “Growth = change in size, the direction doesn’t matter!” Gotta love that postmodernist approach to language.
You know, I only even READ this article because I hadn’t had the opportunity to whack myself with a stick often enough today. That ought to do it.
Cindy, I’ll buy you a hair shirt just like mine.
🙂
Viva Texas….
It has to be just good works since no one is in need of Christ. TEC’s main mouthpieces (KJS, et al) have doused the House with relativism, syncretism, universalism, and much more. Everyone is on their own path – of which Christ is “our way”, but not necessarily the hope for the world. What Good News to an underclass in a Hindu culture who can’t decide which of the thousands of beast deities are ticked off today.
What it IS really is this: The Episcopal Church has done such a miserable job at evangelism in American culture post-Revolutionary War that the big tent crisis-mode demands “welcome it, bless it, and forget it.”
Dates aren’t important, 9th, 10th, 11th – whatever. It’s the appearance of probity that’s important for the press. Not that any of them caught the dating thing, probably saving that for the meta analysis of the computer processors involved, – wanna bet?
Soon-to-be-interview:
Reporter: So, KJS, what’s this about the Virginia Attorney General? Word on the street is that the basement at 815 isn’t big enough for you to hide in now that you lit the powder-keg on the Church.
KJS: We’re excited about our new mission work in China. We’re opening a new mission in the basement at 815 and burrowing….uhh “investing” until we hit the other side.
I feel sorry for her. She’s a puppet who’s grabbed a tiger by the tail and has not one thought of what to do. No personal original thought. I remember leading up to the convention, I thought Parsley was the man…my prayers at the time were that he had the guts to turn this whole mess around. He could have done that. But he too has taken a bite out of the “apple”.
bl
My understanding of Jesus’ ministry is that he told us not to go to war, and that he is at heart a peacemaker,” Jefferts Schori said….
I came not to bring peace but a sword….Jesus said.
Gosh who to believe then?? Schori or Jesus?
Having watched her progress I find it chilling (evdence of dark forces) that a woman who clearly redifines the Christian faith is able to run a branch of Mother Church.
Satan must laugh loudly at the chaos that ensues. Schori demontsrates a grasp of the gospel that is so flimsy – I would not even consider her to read lessons in my church.
Add to that, I don’t recall once Jesus speaking to soldiers to leave the armed services. In fact one of the few times He speaks to a Centurion He praises his faith: “I have not found such faith in a person, even among the house of Israel!” But he never told him to quit the army.