The Top Episcopal Woman

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the New York Times, November 4, 2006, with a headline:Woman Installed As Top Episcopal Bishop.The following are excerpts:“As the thousands gathered at the National Cathedral rang out a deep Amen and then burst into cheers, Catherine Jefferts Schori formally took office as chief pastor and presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church making her the first woman to hold such a post in the world-wide Anglican Communion.Despite the joyous welcome from her supporters, Bishop Jefferts Schori begins her nine year term as intensifying disputes involving homosexuality threaten to fray the Episcopal church and rupture its ties with the 77 million member global Anglican Communion.Several bishops in the United States and leaders of many Anglican provinces overseas have said they will not acknowledge her in the role largely because they are at sharp odds over her openness to gay men and lesbians in the Episcopate and her support of blessings of same-sex marriages.Bishop Jefferts Schori touched on the fractures within her church and voiced hopes of repairing them.‘We cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbors into a more whole and holy state of life,’ she said.‘If some in this church feel wounded by recent decisions then our salvation, our health as a body, is at some hazard and it becomes the duty of all of us to seek healing and wholeness.’The ceremony’s opening encompassed the different traditions the church tries to embrace including those of American Indians who led the procession with their songs and offering of sage and cedar incense and the full-throated singing of the traditional hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”Three dioceses in the United States do not ordain women and refuse to recognize her as the new presiding bishop.But, the most daunting challenges that Bishop Jefferts Schori faces involve her support of the consecration in 2003 of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal church and her backing of church blessings of same-sex couples.”

Tom:

Well, Dave, I watched the opening of the ceremony on the internet and it was pretty amazing.As it says here, you had American Indians leading off offering this cedar incense and then there was drumming and then there was chanting.This is, Dave, I don’t know what to say about that.

Dave:

Well, let me say something.

Tom:

Ok, go ahead.

Dave:

The Bible tells us what we’re supposed to celebrate.It gives us two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and nothing about incense, cedar, chanting and drumming and all that kind of stuff.I suppose they’re trying to pay some reverence to what?Native American Indian faith.This is not Bible, this is not Christianity.She says in her speech, “we cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbors.”Well, what does Jesus say?Revelation 2:“As many as I love I rebuke and chasten.”Now, where’s the rebuke and the chastening here of people who are involved in homosexuality, which the Bible is opposed to.These people have strayed from the Bible and now, but, we’re going to patch it up, folks.“We cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbors into a more whole and holy state of life.”Now, is that homosexuality?This is same-sex marriages?“Now, we’re going to love one another into a more whole and holy state of life.Now, if some in this church feel wounded by recent decisions, then our salvation, our health as a body, is at some hazard. It becomes the duty of all of us to seek healing and wholeness.”Now, see, we’re not going to face what’s wrong.We’re not going to deal with what is right and what is wrong.We’re not going to deal . . .

Tom:

According to the Scriptures.

Dave:

Right.We’re not going to deal with truth.We’re not going to say, well, according to the Scriptures, let’s go back to the Bible and see what the Bible says.But, we’re going to try to arrive at some kind of a, well, we’ll all feel good about one another, and we’ll just get along with one another.And, of course, the whole problem is with a woman bishop.Well, the whole problem is with this world-wide organization.That’s not biblical either.I don’t read of any presiding bishop in the Bible, presiding over the entire Church.That is Catholicism, and of course, as you know, the Anglicans came out of Catholicism, but not very far out.So, the whole thing, Tom, is just unbiblical and it’s going to go from bad to worse.It’s the downward path of the apostasy that we’re in.And, it’s a tragedy.

Tom:

Dave, when she says, “Then our salvation, our health as a body is at some hazard,” she doesn’t understand salvation.But we could go back to the, this is from the New York Times, we go back to the opening, “She has become the chief pastor and presiding bishop of the Episcopal church.”Show me that in Scripture where a woman would take this position as a bishop and presiding chief pastor.That’s a problem.Now, one other thing, it wasn’t just the …

Dave:

Sorry, Tom, it very clearly tells us a bishop, well, that actually means elder, is the husband of one wife.Now we’ve got a husband of one man, or a wife of some, well, I don’t know, but, it’s not biblical, Tom.

Tom:

Right.The other event, again, they had liturgy here.They had a dance team with banners from St. John the DivineChurch, the Episcopal church in New York City.

Dave:

Wow.

Tom:

You know a little bit about that, Dave.

Dave:

They’ve got a female Christ there on the cross.I mean, they are so bad, they’re into the New Age, it’s unbelievable.

Tom:

Right.So, this is sad.But, I’m encouraged to see that there are some dioceses in the United States that reject this, and reject it out of hand because it is not biblical, it is not scriptural.So, there are still some Episcopalians hanging in there for the truth, and I thank God for that.

Dave:

Very small number.

Tom:

I know.

Dave:

Yeah, unfortunately.

Tom:

Dave, she also mentions in this article—these are just excerpts from the New York Times articles regarding this fray among and rupturing of the Episcopal church—one of her statements was, “They’re just going to have to get over it.These are the way things are.”

Dave:

Yeah.So, never mind what the Bible says.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

“The ceremony’s opening encompassed the different traditions the church tries to embrace.”But, wait a minute.What about the Bible, again?Of course, the Catholic church goes by traditions.In fact it says tradition is on a par with the Bible and you cannot understand the Bible without tradition.Well, Tom, they’re doing the same thing.“Different traditions the church tries to embrace.”No, we embrace the truth.We go by the Word of God.So, Tom, it is just symptomatic of what is happening throughout the Church today.