Posted on 06/18/2006 2:25:46 PM PDT by Saint Reagan
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori became the first woman to lead any church in the global Anglican Communion when she was elected Sunday to be the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
The choice of Jefferts Schori may worsen and could even splinter the already difficult relations between the American denomination and its fellow Anglicans. Episcopalians have been sparing with many in the other 37 Anglican provinces over homosexuality, but a female leader adds a new layer of complexity to the already troubled relationship.
Only two other Anglican provinces New Zealand and Canada have female bishops, although a handful of other provinces allow women to serve in the post. Still, there are many Anglican leaders who believe women should not even be priests.
Jefferts Schori was elected at the Episcopal General Convention, where delegates have been debating whether to appease Anglican leaders by agreeing to temporarily stop ordaining gay bishops.
In 2003, the Americans shocked the Anglican world by electing the first openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Placing a female bishop at the head of the denomination could further anger conservatives worldwide and even within the U.S. church. And Jefferts Schori voted to confirm Robinson.
Episcopal bishops elected Jefferts Schori on the fifth ballot in a 95-93 vote from a field including six other male candidates; other General Convention delegates confirmed the choice.
The presiding bishop represents the Episcopal Church in meetings with other Anglican leaders and with leaders of other religious groups. But the presiding bishop's power is limited because of the democratic nature of the church. The General Convention is the top Episcopal policy-making body and dioceses elect their own bishops.
Jefferts Schori will inherit a fractured church. The Pittsburgh-based Anglican Communion Network, which represents 10 U.S. conservative dioceses and more than 900 parishes within the Episcopal Church, is deciding whether to break from the denomination. The House of Bishops recently started a defense fund that will help fight legal battles against parishes that want to leave and take their property with them.
Membership in the Episcopal Church, as in other mainline Protestant groups, has been declining for years and has remained overwhelmingly white. More than a quarter of the 2.3 million parishioners are age 65 or older.
Wow! She sounds like a grand choice! (/sarcasm)
I am a radical Episcopalian. I firmly believe in the theology of the Anglican community. I believe that the Rt. Rev. Schori is in over her head. Not that she is not bright; she is extremely smart, but she has little experience in the pulpit and less experience in the office of bishop. She comes from the environmental movement that believes that it is right no matter who disagrees with it and that they are on the side of God. I do not want schism in the American Episcopal Church. I fear it is going to happen. Consider that the American Episcopal Church found a way to stay together during the run up to the War Between the States and through that awful period. It is a farce to see us split over homosexual rights when we stayed united through the awful period of 1850 to 1880.
Pure liberalism - truth can become what ever you want it to be.
All this is very sad. The Archbishop of Canterbury recently complained that we live in a "toxic" time. Of course, he had earlier apologized to Moslems for past Christian efforts to convert them.
is clearly committed to a new consensus in the Communion that embraces progressive, revisionist theology.
Ewwww, lets have more of this progressive revisionist theology. That's the ticket. Give me that old time progressive, revisionist religion!
No wonder she was able to get elected. That is a really small Diocese.
If you figure 50 % turnout thats 3000 voters, it would not take much of an activist push to get an unpopular candidate elected.
"Well she does look pretty butch"
There's the oxymoron of the day.
This is why I left the Episcopal Church - should have done it 30 years earlier. Yep the election of a female leader is really going to make up for the apostate Robinson.
"Female Leader seems to be an oxymoron."
Kind of like open-minded man?
episcopal church her husband is a woman.
I think you are correct.
I think her election is a piss in the eye of conservatives. She is a slap to try and equate the homosexual priests with women priests.
I think it is really simple, men pay for the priest at weddings, so men need to refuse homosexual or female priests.
Talk with the wallet.
"Could you please correct my spelling in the title of "Episcopalians"?"
"Atheists"
You are exactly right. I am an ex-Episcopalian, now Mo. Synod Lutheran. This action is a big FU to the rest of the Anglican Communion. This is the kind of move lefties LIVE for.
There is a lot of money in endowments and property at stake here. The people who left the money to the church are probably as spastic in their graves as the dead can be. The people taking over know what they are doing, and know how to make themselves financially successful with little effort or risk.
That was my first thought.
I do guarantee all future endowments will be written to specificall adress these types of herretical issues.
Imagine the "priests" being advised that their endowment was at risk if they allowed homosexual priests.
Of course, you are failing to note that there are some very significant women priests in the ECUSA that are on the orthodox side in this issue and fighting tooth-and-nail against the path that Griswald started this denomination down three years ago with the approval of Vicky Gene Robinson (yes, dear readers, that is his real name).
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