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.
Flip the page on your calendar - This is the 21st Century.
Oh my!
It's been established that she's married to a man, so the snide joke is not really necessary. Perhaps you'd prefer to make a snide joke about their daughter, who is in the Air Force. :)
Condolences...may her tenure be brief and uneventful.
What reality? A woman is in a leadership position of the church. What reality do I have to deal with? Do I agree with some of her positions (namely the issue of what she believes on homosexuality)? No I do not. However that's not to say that a woman couldn't lead a Godly church.
Yes, clearly.
What concerns me is the churches that have little time for God!
Good observation.
"However that's not to say that a woman couldn't lead a Godly church."
I agree with this. If you read the section of 1 Timothy that some Christian churches use as their basis for rejecting women in their church, it basically follows the same idea as Islam--that women are inferior to men in every way, and they should always shut their mouths and essentially be the slaves of men.
To give everyone a little background, these are the words and interpretations of St. Paul to Ephesus--a community that held the goddess Artemis higher than all men. If you were in Paul's shoes and you were trying to sell a dead Jew as the son of God, wouldn't you attempt to get them to reject their pagan idea of female superiority?
As a side note, has anyone read through Judges 19 lately? You know, the story of a man who offered his own virgin daughter to be gang raped rather than allowing some guy he just met to be harmed? And then...when another woman is raped and murdered by the same nutcases, her lover chops her up. It just gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn't it?
Some things in the bible need to be considered for the context they were written. Although the bible may be inspired by God (as I believe it was), it was still written by humans.
What concerns me is the churches that have little time for God!
I think that I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the two. Is there a difference?
Amen to that.
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