Episcopalian embraces diversity
Disaffected members pose big challenge for top bishop
Yet some Episcopalians who find themselves at odds with the church's current trajectory say she values such differences only conditionally.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, is in Salt Lake City this weekend on the final leg of a multistate tour. She's scheduled to preside at a 9 a.m. worship service today at St. Mark's Cathedral, and to bless the new Episcopal Church Center just west of the cathedral this afternoon.
She met with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday in a meeting that Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish of Utah said "could not have been more gracious and welcoming."
Formerly bishop of Nevada, Bishop Jefferts Schori came to leadership of the church two years ago at a time of turmoil for some of the faithful, who have watched with growing angst the church's ordination of a gay bishop in 2003 and its growing willingness to affirm gay unions. The backlash has come not only from some within the church itself but also from several quarters inside the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part.
Bishop Jefferts Schori told the Deseret News that less than 1 percent of the 7,600 Episcopal congregations within her jurisdiction — which includes 15 nations in the Western Hemisphere — are publicly opposed to the church's stance. But the disaffected are not hiding their discontent.
Of the upheaval happening within sectors of the church, she said, "I don't call it a convulsion. It's a deepening of understanding. Finding truth requires using reason, conviction within our faith community, incorporating science and the best of human knowledge. We're not a tradition that looks only to the Bible.
"We're not (a faith) that insists that people not use their brains and the best knowledge of the human community that's current and keep looking. We're also a tradition very comfortable with a diversity of opinion. We don't assume there is only one way to understand things. That makes some uncomfortable, but it makes the body healthier and richer."
Recent comments
On the contrary, Ms Schori has been marvelously successful! She has...
Hanna | April 25, 2008 at 8:53 a.m.
To Fastest declining denomination | 12:35 p.m. ,
You seem...
Anonymous | April 23, 2008 at 10:03 p.m.
Ms Schori continues to try to downplay the disaster she and her liberal...
Fastest declining denomination | April 20, 2008 at 12:35 p.m.
