Jefferts Schori points to mission during delegates' Q&A

11/7/2009

By Patricia Templeton

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori set aside her prepared address to the Diocese of Atlanta’s 103rd Annual Council in order to have more time to answer questions from council delegates meeting Nov. 6 at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta.

The questions varied, but her answers had a common theme – the mission of the church is to help usher in the reign of God through reconciling and healing the world.

We live in the tension between “the world as it is, and the dream of God for a healed world,” she said. “The baptized are God’s hands and feet in the world. Our job is to reconcile the world, and it takes all of us, and then some.”

God’s vision of shalom involves all of God’s people. “All God’s people are invited to the feast,” she said, “All races, ethnic origins, theological opinions, economic realities, ages – we’re all God’s people. When we are all around the table together we are beginning to heal the world.”

This gospel vision is contrary to what she called the “great Western heresy of individualism.”

“We think we can do it ourselves all alone. If you can’t, there’s something wrong with you. That’s not the Gospel. We haven’t arrived at God’s vision if some people aren’t there yet.”

Speaking on the day before the U. S. House of Representatives voted on a health care bill, the presiding bishop said that being advocates for those without access to affordable health care was part of the work of healing the world.

“What did Jesus do more than anything else?” she asked. “He healed people, and so should we. Health care is a basic human right. The United States has not yet adopted that position.”

Here are the presiding bishop’s comments on other topics:

On a proposed law in Uganda making homosexuality a criminal act punished by prison or the death penalty: “It’s an horrific law promulgated for political purposes. We’re working behind the scenes to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t pass. But it appears not to be helpful, at the moment, for the Episcopal Church to publicly issue official statements about it.”
On disputes over property when congregations leave the Episcopal Church: “It’s very painful work. But the property of the church is not personal property. It is the moral and fiduciary responsibility of leaders of the church to be stewards of the gifts that have been given, to make sure they are being used for the purposes for which they have been given. It’s not our right to give those gifts away to those with other purposes.”
On the potential for church growth: The presiding bishop noted that almost two-thirds of Americans are not church members, and that the fastest growing segments of the population are nonwhite and immigrant. “Our challenge is looking for fields that are ripe for harvest, not necessarily those that are white for harvest,” she said. “It means we might have to change the way we do things. “We have to become evangelists, all of us. That means we have to get comfortable talking about the presence of Jesus in our lives, to feel comfortable inviting people to church in the same way we’d recommend our favorite restaurants to them; Episcopalians can learn to do that!”
On tensions in the church: “When we are all comfortable we have died. If there isn’t any tension we’re not taking risks. The future is not going to look like the past because the last time I checked we hadn’t reached the kingdom yet.”
On being the first female primate in the Anglican Communion: Being trained as a scientist is a more significant influence on her theology than her gender, she said, admitting that there were those who were “offended” by the idea of a female presiding bishop. However, she said, she has discovered in her travels around the Anglican Communion that “when we are incarnate, when we are face to face, we can recognize the image of God in one another even when we disagree,” she said. “The problem with Internet communication is that it is disincarnate.”

The presiding bishop said she strives to be a non-anxious presence in the midst of the tensions in the church. But she added, “I’m called to do what I’m called to do. Your reaction is your problem, not mine.”

-- The Rev. Patricia Templeton is rector of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta.

Photograph by Ann Fowler

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