Posted on 01/28/2006 4:47:16 PM PST by sionnsar
I'm normally not one for conspiracy theories but is the Katharine Jefferts Schori fix in? With her rather, uh, thin experience:
Jefferts Schori first moved to Corvallis in 1974 to work on her master’s and doctorate degrees in oceanography at Oregon State University. Through her involvement at the Good Samaritan church, she eventually felt a call to ministry, attended seminary and was ordained as a deacon and a priest in 1994. She served six years as the church’s pastoral assistant before her election to serve in Nevada as the youngest bishop among nearly 300 in the national Episcopal Church.
At the time of her election as bishop of Nevada, Jefferts Schori was assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Oregon, where she also served as pastoral associate, dean of the Good Samaritan School of Theology, and priest-in-charge, El Buen Samaritano, Corvallis. She was ordained deacon and priest in 1994.
Her unabashed leftism and the fact that the rest of the field is as undistinguished as it is, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that someone in ECUSA leadership REALLY wants Schori to get the Big Miter.
Which would mean what? I don't think ECUSA is in as weak a position as some people think and that kicking it out of the Anglican world will be easier said than done. Regardless of what it does or doesn't do next year about the Windsor Report or who it elects as Presiding Bishop, ECUSA is always going to have foreign friends in places like South Africa, Europe, Central America and a few other places.
If ECUSA is read out of Anglicanism next year and the Archbishop of Capetown, Njonkulu Ndugane, visits the United States and preaches in ECUSA churches shortly thereafter, does anyone seriously think that anything will happen to him? And if a particularly liberal C of E bishop allows an ECUSA bishop in to preach, does anyone expect Dr. Williams to do anything about it other than express his "concern?"
So I don't think ECUSA needs to reach out by electing a "moderate" like Henry Parsley(who really should get asked one of these days whether he thinks giving bishoprics to unrepentant sinners is a bad thing) to the top job. It has nothing to lose by electing Schori and, from the standpoint of ECUSA's left, everything to gain since Schori's election will drive the final nail into the coffin of Episcopal Church orthodoxy.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Is she gay?
Have no idea. Beyond that, I am biting my tongue...
This will get interesting.
Is it possible for those in a given diocese or parish to ignore what the national church does? Can parishioners really say "Well, my parish isn't like that?"
NO WAY!!!
The short answer, from experience, is (a limited) "yes."
I left ECUSA a long time ago, but my own observation is that most of those in the pews are simply unaware of what is happening outside their own parish. The, um, "church experience" is completely tied up wth the parish and there's generally little news or other information from outside coming in.
As a young teen I remember going with a group of my peers and a (liberal) mother to a memorial for Pike. I had no idea who Pike was, other than a he was a famous bishop who'd died...
It was something more than a decade after that when I was unavoidably faced (as delegate to diocesan convention) with the reality of my ECUSA diocese -- and subsequently discovered there is Anglican life outside of ECUSA.
There are many good people in ECUSA yet today --from laity to bishops-- they remain in my prayers because there are difficult and horrific days ahead of them.
Just look at Barbara Harris (? 1st black woman bishop, otherwise totally unqualified) and say -- no way?
You'll know them by their fruits (paraphrased): here are their fruits.
agreed
<<You'll know them by their fruits (paraphrased): here are their fruits.<<
And NUTS! Can't forget the nuts...
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