Presiding bishop defends Episcopal Church direction

From Casper, Wyoming (www.trib.com) via Stand Firm:

Diocese holds convention in Casper


Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Law in the Old Testament was not regarded by Jews as grim or confining, the head of The Episcopal Church said Thursday.

"The Law they called Torah is seen as life-giving, as blessing," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

"Jesus summarizes the Law that [Old Testament scribe] Ezra reads as 'love God' and 'love your neighbor' and we might add to that frequent biblical message, 'don't be afraid,'" Jefferts Schori said during her sermon at a jazz Mass at the Parkway Plaza in Casper. "Fear not, because God loves you and the world is actually far more gracious than you can ever [imagine]."

In the first three of her nine-year position, she's had plenty of opportunities to fear not and enjoy grace, because she's had a tough job.

Jefferts Schori has presided over a two million-member denomination wracked by disputes over ordaining homosexuals and the authority of the Bible, wholesale departures of congregations -- often with costly property litigation -- at odds with the leftward drift of the church's leadership, and distance from the worldwide Anglican communion and its conservative churches in Africa.

The convention, which ends Sunday, follows the July national General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., during which the delegates approved resolutions allowing the ordination of homosexuals, and granting clergy the authority to marry those in same-sex relationships.

During a panel discussion Friday, Wyoming delegates recognized the risk of those resolutions.

"We stepped off the cliff with the sexuality (resolutions)," said the Rev. Ann Fontaine of Atlantic City. "We hope the angels will bear us up, but we don't know."

Anglicans have never claimed to base their decisions solely on the Bible, Jefferts Schori said. "We start there, but that's not the only piece we bring to our decision-making."

The few biblical passages about same-sex relationships may be talking about exploitive relationships, she said. "Jesus doesn't say anything about same-sex relationships of the kind the church is talking about."

Jefferts Schori also drew fire during and after the General Convention for her sermon denouncing "the great Western heresy" that people can be saved as individuals. Salvation happens within a community, she said.

She defended herself on Friday.

"People took it out of context," Jefferts Schori said. "You can't be in a right relationship with God without being in a right relationship with your neighbor."

But she declined to say people can't be in a right relationship with God without being in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, she said. "God is at work in the lives of people who are not consciously Christian."

This kind of thinking did not sit well with the Rev. Tom Johnson, who had been a priest at St. Mark's Church in Casper but left in 2005 to start the Anglican Church of the Resurrection. This church is affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America, which is under the authority of the Anglican Church in Rwanda, Johnson said.

"Theologically, I was not where The Episcopal Church was," he said. "It would have been like being a hypocrite to be there."

The controversy isn't about homosexuality, either, Johnson said.

"At the forefront is where you get the bottom line of truth," he said.

The Anglican Church of the Resurrection believes in the necessity of the salvation of the individual, Johnson said. "We do believe in a personal relationship with Jesus; that's very much what it's all about."

Despite the rifts from Wyoming to the world in the Anglican Communion, a University of Wyoming religion professor doesn't think The Episcopal Church will disintegrate.

"This is nothing new," Kristine Utterback said.

Churches in the United States split over slavery, with opposing sides using Scripture to support their beliefs, Utterback said.

For the most part, Anglicans tend avoid major rifts, she said. "The Episcopal Church tries to stay in and slug it out."

The church always will have tensions, like the disputes over homosexuality, between those who want change and those who don't, Utterback said. "Like slavery, we'll probably move beyond it."