Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Deeds-Based Evangelism is Focus for Presiding Bishop [TEC]
The Living Church Foundation ^ | 11/16/2006 | Steve Waring

Posted on 11/17/2006 5:21:32 PM PST by sionnsar

With initiatives to help organize a new convocation of Anglican provinces in the Americas and more closely monitor property issues within domestic dioceses, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori delegated authority confidently during meetings in Chicago Nov. 12-17 with Executive Council and a number of other organizations that carry out the work of General Convention when it is not in session.

During her opening address to Executive Council, and later during a Nov. 14 homily at the nearby headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Bishop Jefferts Schori raised the subject of term limits for bishops and spoke of her vision to make The Episcopal Church more conscious of “deed-based evangelism” opportunities such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Admitting that the concept of term limits for bishops might be a sticking point for many Episcopalians, Bishop Jefferts Schori said one of the challenges during the negotiations over Called to Common Mission with the ELCA had to do with a different understanding of the sacramental nature of the episcopacy. ELCA bishops are elected for a specific term.

“There would have to be a broad theological discussion and more broadly a sacramental one before The Episcopal Church considers a change like that,” she told The Living Church.


A number of Episcopalians have questioned publicly whether bishop-elect Mark Lawrence will receive consents to his consecration as Bishop of South Carolina from a majority of standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction in other dioceses. Some advocacy groups have lobbied openly for denial of his consent. Bishop Jefferts Schori said she had not seen the request for consent prior to her resignation as Bishop of Nevada (as Presiding Bishop she does not have a vote), and she will “not interfere in the process, nor do I believe my predecessor did [to influence outcomes either way].”

Some have criticized Bishop Jefferts Schori for an excessive emphasis on MDGs. She said “deed-based evangelism,” a phrase she used during her Nov. 12 address to council, is consistent with one of the baptismal vows found in the Book of Common Prayer.

“We proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “There are people in such dire straits that the moral word does not penetrate. If you are starving, food must come first in the same way that Jesus often fed people before he taught them. The MDGs are our opportunity in this age.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori said she was learning more about the Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean - an organization announced last year by the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies, with essentially the same membership and purpose as an Anglican Convocation of the Americas initiative approved Nov. 15 by Executive Council.

“The president of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, and I will ask a task force to work on it,” she said.

Bishop Jefferts Schori also declined to go into specifics about the House of Bishops’ task force on property disputes, which received and endorsed a report by Bishop Stacy Sauls of Lexington that identified eight problem dioceses.


“The group reports to me and David Booth Beers as chancellor,” she said.

The Presiding Bishop said there was no message to read in the number of diocesan bishops who were not present for her Nov. 4 investiture. Bishop Jefferts Schori said she believed the number of bishops not present was relatively small and that many of them had contacted her beforehand to let her know they had “other commitments.”

In his brief investiture greeting, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that Bishop Jefferts Schori was assuming office during “the most challenging of times.” Bishop Jefferts Schori offered the same assessment of Archbishop Williams, and said during an Oct. 27 meeting in London she offered to help him.

“He is in a very hard position,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “He is the spiritual head of a fractious communion. I don’t think it is radically different than some of the sibling rivalries we find in the Bible. I asked him what I could do to make his job easier; perhaps I could be of assistance as the Church of England debates women in the episcopate.”


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant; Other non-Christian
KEYWORDS:
[I'm only the messenger here... --sionnsar]
1 posted on 11/17/2006 5:21:33 PM PST by sionnsar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ahadams2; rabscuttle385; cf_river_rat; fgoodwin; secret garden; MountainMenace; ...
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
More Anglican articles here.

Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

2 posted on 11/17/2006 5:22:19 PM PST by sionnsar (?trad-anglican.faithweb.com?|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

I don't think Schori would know evangelism from a hole in her head.

Evangelism is not something the reprobate can be expected to know. God knows if she is unsaved...but Jesus did say we can know a tree by its fruit.


3 posted on 11/17/2006 11:00:13 PM PST by AnalogReigns
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

say what?!


4 posted on 11/17/2006 11:14:53 PM PST by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

By focusing on physical needs, the episcopal church is able to ignore spiritual needs. This has been a trend for some time in ecusa.

Just feed and clothe them - don't evangelize, don't address spritual needs, and don't ever suggest that people need to change as they become closer to God's will.

More of the same fuzzy-minded post-modernistic "thinking" that the church has become famous for.

It does, by extension, deny God, Jesus and the Bible, and place the focus of human life on physical needs and desires, and denies the transcendent and holy.

Hence the "need" to recognize aberrent and un-Godlike behaviors, and to accept and even "bless" them within the church.


5 posted on 11/18/2006 7:44:18 AM PST by SuzyQue (Remember to think.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

Matthew 6:1-4

That's all I have to say for now.


6 posted on 11/18/2006 10:15:36 AM PST by Peanut Gallery
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Peanut Gallery; sionnsar

Okay, I have one more thing to add.

Matthew 7:21,23


7 posted on 11/18/2006 10:37:37 AM PST by Peanut Gallery
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar
the same way that Jesus often fed people before he taught them

Usually, after Jesus fed the people, the got up and walked away before Jesus could teach them. Is that the PB'ess' intention?

8 posted on 11/18/2006 11:23:29 AM PST by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LiteKeeper

Where does the Bible say that?


9 posted on 11/18/2006 11:24:30 AM PST by SuzyQue (Remember to think.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

And The Great Commission of Matthew says what?


10 posted on 11/18/2006 11:27:04 AM PST by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

When I read the title, I though she was referring to the fact that if a congregation objects the existing order in the ELCA, they threaten to take the congregation's deed.


11 posted on 11/18/2006 12:40:35 PM PST by superdad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson