I’m not really sure we need to post yet another news story about Katharine Jefferts Schori. At least to this elf, they all begin to sound alike. But in the “For the Record” category, here’s an excerpt from the Houston Chronicle’s article on the Presiding Bishop’s recent visit there.
From the Houston Chronicle:
Episcopal leader urges teamwork in repairing the world
[…]
“The reality is that reconciliation and freedom go hand in hand,” she told Houstonians and members of the Union of Black Episcopalians in a morning service at downtown’s Christ Church Cathedral. “The irony is that freedom, reconciliation and the reign of God are all around us, and yet none of them is fully known or experienced ”” not yet.”
Jefferts Schori, who was elected the first female leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church in June 2006, is on her first official visit to Houston. Her sermon was a highlight of the 39th annual meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians, many participants said. She will lead a forum today at the conference, which concludes Friday.
“We live in a world that is not yet whole, and we understand our vocation to be its healing or repair,” she said in a sanctuary filled with both black and white Episcopalians. “Our Jewish brothers and sisters call it ‘Tikkun Alam,’ the repair of the world.”
A healed world is an ancient dream, the presiding bishop said during her sermon. Telling stories of both joy and grief is part of the healing process.
“Over and over and over again, the prophets railed against those who brought greater divisions to the world, those who bring more injustice, those whose deeds sow destruction,” she said.
Jefferts Schori said there are many kinds of reconciliations ”” “between individuals, within families, among nations, between politicians and, yes, even theological factions.”
The last was a subtle reference to the struggle between the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion over the role of gays in the church. The 77 million-member worldwide church has been in turmoil since 2003, when the Americans consecrated an openly gay bishop.
“Why is loving our neighbors such hard work?” she asked, as the standing-room-only congregation laughed.
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Also of note on the Katharine Jefferts Schori beat:
A reader sent us links to the podcast of her recent radio appearance in Virginia. This elf has been too busy to listen and normally doesn’t like to post things without verifying them herself. However, the reader noted that the call-in section of the show was quite interesting in places. The easiest place to find all the links is the Lead blog (part of the Episcopal Cafe site).
If any readers have listened to the podcast and have specific suggestions as to short segments you recommend, we’d welcome that information. Thanks.
I almost hate to say this but after reading several of these articles on her….she almost sounds delusional in her grand ideas of “restorative justice” and the “reign of God” and “ancient dream” of a “healed world” and her consistent misrepresentation of the gospel and the church. She sounds like she has conjured her own “dream” of a gospel that does not exist in reality.
Interesting definition of confession. LM
…and those of you who want reconciliation with God through Christ and freedom from the iron fist of TEC–we will sue you. KJS
So telling stories is what it is all about.
FYI, the interview of Bishop Jefforts-Schori begins at about minute 26 of the program. In my opinion the more interesting part of the interview comes in the last 8 minutes.
“Over and over and over again, the prophets railed against those who brought greater divisions to the world, those who bring more injustice, those whose deeds sow destruction,” she said.
Like The Episcopal Church?
My wife read that in the Chronicle, and her reaction was “hogwash, the prophets railed against people that had turned from God not railed against injustice. She doesn’t even know her Bible”.
#8: Remember, that most of the clergy now sitting in episcopal thrones were educated in seminaries in which Gospel categories…”repentance”, “sin”, “reconciliation”, “justice”… were routinely and automatically re-translated into the language of personal liberation from self-examination and the obsessional identification of sin as corporate…read ‘white, male, middle-class, straight’.
This is why the GS insistence on repentance, in the orthodox biblical sense..i.e. “changing mind, changing behavior, expressing the grief of guilt before a holy God”…is so foreign and off-putting to TEC’s reappraising bishops. Hence, we get this current insistence on reconciling along the lines of the MDG, rather than from a New Testament insistence on personal accountability to the Lord.
Kathering Schori is nothing more, or less, than a fine representative of the gnostic theology that grew like ragweed during the decades after the 1960s.
[blockquote] One of the challenges the group faces, Pinder said, is “bringing people of different cultures together but with the same skin. We have to talk about multiculture in the sense of [b]including everyone of dark skin or African descent, regardless of their language.[/b]”[/blockquote]Is he including the Nigerians, Kenyans, Ugandans, et al? If this is so, shouldn’t remaining in the Anglican Communion be a top priority?
[blockquote]In a sermon earlier this week, the Very Rev. C. David Williams, dean of Trinity and St. Philips Cathedral in Newark, N.J., called for a true partnership church, in which equality and justice are practiced.
“We are part of the Episcopal Church, an institution that is changing and dynamic,” Williams said. “It’s a church where people with HIV and AIDS can come, a church that is open to gays and lesbians and the homeless. The church must be there for them and open to all. “[/blockquote]
I’ve heard rumors of gays and lesbians attending church in the Diocese of Newark but this statement confirms it. One wonders if this is going on at the Cathedral in Newark it could be happening anywhere in the diocese like Chatham for example!
On the subject of breaking news, the Weather Channel has reported that the sun rose in the east this morning and the BBC is claiming that there are indeed Nigerians in Nigeria!
[blockquote] “Why is loving our neighbors such hard work?” she asked, as the standing-room-only congregation laughed.[/blockquote]
Well, maybe it’s because they are having an adverse reaction to the law suit you slapped on them Kate.
One can pick this speech apart, I supose, but it would be hard to find any one place where this speech’s dominant tone of vacuity is clearly focused. Someone posted a remark from CSLewis on another thread in which he remrked tht when Protestants go sour, the result is a mishmash of ethical cliches. ANd that’s what we have here, a thin pseudo-theological drizzle accompanied by a drifting fog. None of this touches Christianity. That’s what the fog is for, I suppose. Do you think tht she thinks she is speaking clearly? Has she no idea how vacuous she sounds? Still, standing room only suggest tht a lot of people want to hear her utter one platitude after another.
I particularly like, however, the use of “multiculture” and making a connection with black skin only. YOu know, as I read the speech again, I sensed that Schori is pandering to this audience, that this is a stump speech. This speech smells bad at several levels. LM
#13: Mr. Morse, I was at the service, and I heard the Presiding Bishop preach. I’m not sure if you realize it, but your comments are at risk of being racially insensitive. She was not pandering to her audience–the service was in conjunction with a meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians, so, of course, she spoke to some specific areas of interest to that demographic. She did not, as you said, make a connection with “black skin only.” I’m Anglo, and I was quite moved by her words. I think they did speak to a multicultural audience. By the way, there were people of different racial/ethnic backgrounds there, and everyone I saw was moved by her sermon. How often do sermons get ovations? Perhaps you should wait until the full text of her sermon is printed before judging it. Admittedly, I was an admirer of the bishop’s before the Reconciliation Eucharist, and I am rather liberal theologically. Still, I think there was very little in her sermon that spoke only to a liberal perspective. I’ll be interested to see the full text for myself, so that I can go over it again and see if I still have the same impression.
#14
Interesting perspective. Whenever I am in New York, I go to communion at St John the Divine and am always moved by the enthusiastic mixture of whites, blacks, Hispanics and (quite obviously) gays. The Dean also has a helluva handshake – no lavender tendency there. Last time I was there, there was a baptismal service and most of the babies were black. It works. It feels great. It’s moving. One feels spiritually elevated. And the preaching is basically orthodox.
The last time I was at St. John the Devine they had an altar set up to Bhudda. Earlier this year they let Elton John use the nave for a cocktail party. The NY Times reported the Christian altar was used as a stage for the band. They didn’t say what the Bhuddist altar was used for.
But David, I’m certain that you felt “spiritually elevated” and noticed that there was “no lavender tendency” in the handshake of the Dean?
Hey, does St. John the divine still have the crucified female (on the cross) in place of Jesus on the cross on display in the cathedral? Or did they take her down after the initial controversy?
Here’s the link to the full sermon that Bishop Jefferts-Schori preached at the Reconciliation Eucharist for the Union of Black Episcopalians: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78703_88048_ENG_HTM.htm