Katharine Jefferts Schori visits Wales
TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has been visiting Wales this week.
Nothing particularly remarkable, but there’s a report at Wales Online.
Jefferts Schori in Canterbury
Not that Canterbury. TEC Presiding Bishop Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spent Sunday evening in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, preaching at St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch.
Sermon here. Also, Episcopal News report. (Photo: Anglican Taonga.)
The ACL protests Katharine Jefferts Schori’s visit to Australia
The President of the Anglican Church League, the Rev Dr Mark Thompson, has issued this statement on behalf of the ACL’s Council:
We note with profound sadness that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, has been invited to preach in a Brisbane church in early July. This invitation shows an appalling lack of judgment and contempt for those who have suffered at the hands of the revisionists in The Episcopal Church.
The Presiding Bishop has defied the vast majority of the Anglican Communion, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, by pursuing a program of moral and doctrinal revision, endorsing homosexual behaviour and approving the appointment of a lesbian bishop. Her actions have been taken in full awareness of the widespread international concern which has led to an official call for a moratorium on any such measures.
As recently as April 2010, the Statement issued at the end of the 4th Global South Encounter spoke of TEC’s ‘total disregard for the mind of the Communion’ and the way these churches ‘continue in their defiance as they set themselves on a course that contradicts the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures on matters so fundamental that they affect the very salvation of those involved’. The statement continued, ‘Such actions violate the integrity of the Gospel, the Communion and our Christian witness to the rest of the world’.
This alarming behaviour has been compounded by a virulent attack on Anglicans in America who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of Scripture. The Presiding Bishop has been responsible for pursuing, in the secular courts, those who oppose her program of revision, as her agents seek to remove orthodox clergy and take over the property of faithful, Bible-believing congregations.
Katherine Jefferts Schori bears a great deal of responsibility for the current turmoil, division and anguish in the Anglican Communion. It is entirely inappropriate that she should be welcomed into any diocese in the Anglican Church of Australia.
Faithful Anglicans throughout Australia will be offended by this decision. The Council of the ACL calls on Archbishop Aspinall to reconsider and rescind the invitation.
Mark Thompson
President, Anglican Church League,
on behalf of the ACL’s Council,
26 June 2010.
Katharine Jefferts Schori heads Down Under for ‘conversations around human sexuality’
From the Episcopal News Service:
“The Anglican churches in Australia and New Zealand are hosting Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for an informal two-week visit to the two provinces.
‘I’m to speak with people there about their conversations around human sexuality and also about their missionary development work…’ Jefferts Schori told members of Executive Council during their June 16-18 meeting in Maryland…
During her visit to Australia, the presiding bishop will preach July 4 at Christ Church St. Lucia in the Diocese of Brisbane, where Archbishop Philip Aspinall of the Anglican Church of Australia serves as bishop.…”
‘The Spirit seems to be saying…’ — Schori
Katharine Jefferts Schori has released a ‘pastoral letter’, in which she refers to Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Pentecost letter:
“We live in great concern that colonial attitudes continue, particularly in attempts to impose a single understanding across widely varying contexts and cultures. … As Episcopalians, we note the troubling push toward centralized authority exemplified in many of the statements of the recent Pentecost letter…”
– Her letter is available here.
And Joe Carter at First Things writes –
“I realize I may be expressing latent colonialist tendencies and committing spiritual violence by imposing a singular understanding of basic logic on Bishop Schori, but it appears that she is forcing us to choose between two alternatives…” Read here.
South Carolina Resolutions to respond to Schori
The Diocese of South Carolina’s annual convention will consider five resolutions on March 26, three of which stress diocesan authority amid conflicts with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
In proposing one resolution, the diocese’s standing committee calls it a “Response to Ecclesiastical Intrusions by the Presiding Bishop.” That resolution refers to the diocese’s “legal and ecclesiastical authority as a sovereign diocese within the Episcopal Church,” adds that “the Presiding Bishop has no authority to retain attorneys in this Diocese that present themselves as the legal counsel for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina,” and demands that she “drop the retainer of all such legal counsel in South Carolina as has been obtained contrary to the express will of this Diocese.” …
– Full report from The Living Church.
(Photo of Bishop Mark Lawrence: Diocese of South Carolina.)
Tong: Defending my take on Schori
My last blog remarked on Presiding Bishop Schori’s breathtaking rejection of the gospel of salvation, “the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God”.
The blog drew some debate about my use of Scripture but I take comfort from the report of Bishop David Bena’s sermon at an ordination where he attacked Schori by saying…
– Read Robert Tong’s post at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Schori declaration a sad milestone
‘That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Neil Armstrong’s words come readily to mind for those who watched (on television) the first ‘man on the moon’. That was 40 years ago. …
– Robert Tong writes at SydneyAnglicans.net
‘As Darwin turns 200, Jefferts Schori the scientist reflects’
“Jefferts Schori’s supporters say her unique background has invigorated her church and brought fresh insights into age-old problems. …
Jefferts Schori said science informs everything from how she interprets the Bible to her views on homosexuality — two subjects that now embroil her church and the larger Anglican Communion.”
– Article from Episcopal Life Online. (Photo © 2009 Episcopal Life Online.)
Ft Worth to Schori: Stop border crossing
Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth has responded to his supposed inhibition by the TEC Presiding Bishop:
“Katharine Jefferts Schori has no authority over me or my ministry as a Bishop in the Church of God. She never has, and she never will.
Since November 15, 2008, both the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and I as the Diocesan Bishop have been members of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. As a result, canonical declarations of the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church pertaining to us are irrelevant and of no consequence.
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth”
And from the Fort Worth Standing Committee: Read more
Schori’s memo planning Duncan deposition
Greg Griffith, at Stand Firm, has published a memo allegedly by TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, detailing her plans to depose Pittsburgh bishop Bob Duncan. …
September 12, 2008
Memorandum to the House of Bishops
Subject: Bishop of PittsburghSisters and Brothers:
As has been widely reported, at the forthcoming business meeting of the House in Salt Lake City on September 18, I shall present to the House the matter of the certification to me by the Title IV Review Committee that Bishop Robert W. Duncan has abandoned the Communion of this Church within the meaning of Canon IV.9. In this memorandum, I layout the background of this matter and what I see as the procedural and substantive issues that are raised by it. …
– Read it all – and a related memo from the Task Force on Property Disputes (PDF file – direct link).
(Photo: Episcopal Life Online / Richard Schori.)
Schori to ‘focus on more important matters’
“The head of the Anglican church in the US has said that her church has embarrassed other parts of the Anglican Communion with its approach to sexuality.
Speaking ahead of the Lambeth Conference, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori defended churches that had confronted the controversial issue.
She said she hoped that Anglican bishops gathering in Canterbury this week would not be distracted by discussions about sexuality, but rather would focus on more important matters like international development and climate change. …”
– Report from BBC News.
Fort Worth Bishop Iker to Schori: It’s you who are meddling
Bishop Jack Iker of the Diocese of Forth Worth has responded to TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s letter to Archbishop Greg Venables.
Bishop Iker points out that Archbishop Venables is in his diocese by his invitation.
And he has more to say –
April 30, 2008
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017Dear Katharine,
I am shocked and saddened by the rude letter you released yesterday to Archbishop Greg Venables, concerning his visit this weekend to the Diocese of Fort Worth. Far from being “an unwarranted interference,” he is coming at my request as an honored visitor and guest speaker.
You should know that under the canons this does not require either your approval or your support. You have no say in this matter. A diocesan bishop is free to invite other bishops to visit and speak in his diocese.
There are no efforts at reconciliation proceeding within this Province, which is one reason why faithful people continue to leave TEC in droves. Your attitude and actions simply reinforce alienation and bring further discord.
Once again, you are the one meddling in the internal affairs of this diocese, and I ask you to stop your unwelcome intrusions.
Faithfully in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worthcc: The Archbishop of Canterbury
See the PDF file. (Photo: Diocese of Fort Worth.)
Fort Worth visit an ‘unwarranted invasion’, Schori tells Venables
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has advised Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Gregory J. Venables in an April 29 letter that his planned May 2–4 visit to address a special convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth “with the expressed purpose of describing removal to the Province of the Southern Cone is an unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this Province.”
– Report from the Episcopal News Service. (Photo credit: Washington National Cathedral.)
The text of the letter is below: Read more
Falls Church Anglican opens new church home
Long-time readers will remember the saga of Falls Church Anglican in the suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, just outside Washington.
After leaving the Episcopal Church of the USA (TEC) over that denomination’s rejection of the Bible’s teaching on human sexuality, in 2012 they lost their historic building and grounds.
Today, after much work, and with great thanksgiving to God, their new church building is being consecrated to be a centre of gospel ministry.
Earlier:
The Costly Faithfulness of The Falls Church – The Gospel Coalition, May 2012.
“The Falls Church is one of hundreds of congregations across the country that have given up their buildings rather than stay affiliated with a branch of their church they believe denies the final authority of Scripture. …”
Stories of sacrifice from the USA – GAFCON, May 2017.
“Despite the split, [the Rector, John] Yates II and his bishop almost reached an agreement in which The Falls Church Anglican could keep their property and continue in gospel centred mission. However, disaster struck when newly elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori directed TEC to adopt an aggressive stance with ‘rebel’ congregations.
The deal was off, and as with The Good Shepherd, a long and costly legal battle ensued. The outcome was seemingly disastrous. Everything was lost, the prayer books, the sound equipment, and the $2.8 million in cash that members had donated to church accounts specifically designated not to go to the Episcopal Church. They were also forced to vacate their colonial building and the Yates’ lost their rectory. It was all gone.
What happened next? Well, their response can be summed up in two words – church planting. …”
Photo: Falls Church Anglican.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…