Katharine Jefferts Schori spent much of her time as Presiding Bishop of TEC embroiled in lawsuits against ACNA parishes and dioceses who were trying to hang on to their buildings. I met her in 2010 at the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and asked how a Christian denomination could justify launching so many lawsuits. Her response was that she had a “fiduciary responsibility towards TEC”. The implication that, in her view, it was her most important responsibility, was not lost on me.
Having so much experience in promoting harmony and good-will must have been what prompted the Bishop of BC, Logan McMenamie to invite Jefferts Schori to the Diocese to impart her timeless wisdom – distilled over many years of acrimonious litigation – about Truth and Reconciliation.
I’m not sure if Logan is paying her or not, but I can only assume she is not neglecting her fiduciary responsibility to herself.
From here:
Truth and reconciliation is a response to colonialism but for individuals it’s a chance to enlarge our viewpoints by hearing experiences of others, a pioneering clergywoman says.
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S., the first woman to be elected a primate in the worldwide Anglican Church, said truth and reconciliation at its most basic, is about listening and respect.
“It’s really an anti-colonialism response,” said Jefferts Schori in a telephone interview from her home in Nevada.
“It encourages people to hear each other’s stories and perspectives and to respect their differences rather than imposing your own view.”
Jefferts Schori is speaking Thursday at the University of Victoria and will be at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria for a forum on Sunday.
Jefferts Schori was American Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop from 2006 to 2015. She has served as Bishop of Nevada and is currently a visiting professor at Church Divinity of the Pacific.
She has degrees in biology and a PhD in oceanography, serves on the Earth and Life Studies board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and was a member the Council on Neighborhood and Faith-Based Partnerships when Barack Obama was president.
Bishop Logan McMenamie, of the Diocese of British Columbia, said Jefferts Schori has demonstrated incredible leadership in the church and community.
“It wasn’t easy for her with some of the other primates throughout the world,” McMenamie said.
“But she has always demonstrated amazing leadership, and stood tall during some very difficult times in the life of the [Anglican] communion.”
Jefferts Schori said: “A founding principle of Anglicanism is the Gospel, the faith, is supposed to grow and develop in unique ways in different contexts.
But Anglicans haven’t always thought so, she said. In particular, those working as colonial missionaries thought only their views and contexts were correct.
“But it’s core to what it means to be an Anglican today,” she said.
“[Faith] takes different shapes in different contexts.”
For example, she said the U.S. Anglican community has experienced a new creative experience listening to how the Christian Gospels have found new contexts in indigenous societies.
“You begin to develop a more creative community as a result,” Jefferts Schori said.
“There is an ability to see truth in different contexts and find a larger picture than any one individual can find on their own.”
It has been well-documented by the Anglican Curmudgeon, (himself a lawyer), that these legal actions were not financially responsible. In other words, in some instances they continued well beyond the point of legal merit and any possibility of financial gain.
But to rub salt into the wounds, it was Schori who devised the policy of refusing to sell to departing congregations their historic, vacated properties. Far better for these properties to be sold to people of other denominations, or religions, than departing congregants.
This was an act of indisputable malice. What does one do when one cannot stop people leaving? Make it as painful and ugly as possible for those who do. And this as a deliberate policy from a leadership purporting to be disciples of Christ!
It illustrates well why the most blistering malediction on the pages of scripture is Christ addressing the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew’s gospel – “hypocrites!”. The divine anger is palpable even on ink and paper 2,000 years later. To behave abominably, and at the same time preach exalted values with an aura of sanctimonious superiority was a level of smugness and self-satisfaction nearly beyond even the endurance of God in the flesh.
I think these leaders are to be pitied more than despised. For they are doubly damned. Their judgement will be a horrific experience of truth realised too late. On the one hand, they are manifestly unsaved people. On the other, they have ascended (heaven only knows how!) to positions in which they claim to be shepherds and pretend to speak in the name of Christ. In their positions they lead people astray, bless that which is abominable and curse that which is holy, call sin “good” and good things “sin”, and close the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven upon those who might otherwise have entered in.
Well said. There may be no justice on earth for those maltreated by these worthless people, but God is not mocked.
“A founding principle is the Gospel . . . .” Could we rubes be enlightened as to what other principles matter to the Christian church?
The fact that this apostate has been invited to an ACoC cathedral, or indeed any other facility of the ACoC, clearly shows the ACoC is no longer Christian but will do everything in their power to destroy the Christian faith of those who have chosen to follow our Lord & Saviour. It is apostates such as this co-called bishop and others that bear the responsibility for the destruction of true Christian faith within the ACoC as they have turned their back on our Lord and worship the deceptive gods – notice the small “g” – of political correctness and political expediency.
Birds of a feather…