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TechnoratiIn her first opening address to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori made it very clear that the denomination she presides over is in the middle of a crisis - one that has several parts.
“The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God," the U.S. Episcopal leader remarked Tuesday, in opening the July 8-17 gathering of her denomination’s primary governing and legislative body.
"That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention," she added.
According to Jefferts Schori, the theme of the convention, an African concept known as “Ubuntu,” implies, “selfishness and self-centeredness cannot long survive."
“We are our siblings’ keepers and their knowers, and we cannot be known without them – we have no meaning, no true existence in isolation,” she stated.
Jefferts Schori’s address was delivered as The Episcopal Church continues its struggle to keep its members united following the divisive election of the denomination’s first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Since the 2003 election, a number of churches have withdrawn completely from both the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion to form their own Anglican jurisdictions. Others have withdrawn from the Episcopal Church but aligned with other bodies within the Anglican Communion.
Last month, around 700 breakaway parishes in North America officially united into a single church body – the Anglican Church in North America – that is meant to serve as an orthodox, Anglican, mission-minded, and biblically-centered province. Together, the parishes represent some 100,000 conservative Anglicans.
Though never directly mentioning critics of The Episcopal Church, Jefferts Schori noted that “some quarters” insist that “salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus.”
“The temptation for us here will be to see one small part of God’s mission, the part each one of use holds most dear, as the overarching reason for this church’s existence. The reality is that God’s mission will continue, whatever we do here, but it may not advance as effectively or penetrate as widely in the next few years if we get selfish or miss the mark,” she said.
Furthermore, she added, there are aspects of mission that are more appropriate and effective at the congregational and diocesan level.
“We might also consider putting in that category the big picture issues we can’t yet agree on – the ones for which we have many, more local, and varied understandings, recognizing the different contexts may require different responses,” she added, possibly suggesting that congregations should be given leeway to decide individually on the issue of homosexual clergy and same-sex unions as the Presbyterian Church (PCUSAUSA's governing body voted to do in 2006. Continue »
