In her first opening address to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in the US, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori made it very clear that the denomination she presides over is in the middle of a crisis.
“The crisis of this moment has several parts,” the US Episcopal leader remarked at the opening of her denomination’s primary governing and legislative body on Tuesday.
And the overarching connection in all of these crises, she continued, has to do with “the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God”.
But, as the theme of the convention – “Ubuntu” – implies, “selfishness and self-centredness cannot long survive”, she said.
“We are our siblings’ keepers and their knowers, and we cannot be known without them – we have no meaning, no true existence in isolation,” she added.
Jefferts Schori’s address was delivered as The Episcopal Church continues its struggle to keep its members united following the divisive election of the denomination’s first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Since Robinson's 2003 consecration, a number of churches have withdrawn completely from both The Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion to form their own Anglican jurisdictions. Others have withdrawn from The Episcopal Church but aligned with other bodies within the Anglican Communion.
Last month, around 700 breakaway parishes in North America officially united into a single church body – the Anglican Church in North America – that is meant to serve as an orthodox Anglican, mission-minded, and biblically-centred province. Together, the parishes represent some 100,000 conservative Anglicans.
Though never directly mentioning critics of The Episcopal Church, Jefferts Schori noted that “some quarters” insist that “salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus”.
“The temptation for us here will be to see one small part of God’s mission, the part each one of use holds most dear, as the overarching reason for this Church’s existence. The reality is that God’s mission will continue, whatever we do here, but it may not advance as effectively or penetrate as widely in the next few years if we get selfish or miss the mark,” she said.
