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A church in crisis

In her opening address to the General Convention, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori repeatedly described her Episcopal Church as in “crisis,” but said it also has a “remarkable opportunity” to clarify the church’s mission and priorities.

“This crisis is a decision point, one which may involve suffering, but it is our opportunity to choose which direction we’ll go and what we will build. We will fail if we choose business as usual,” she said. (A video of Jefferts Schori’s speech is here.)

The Episcopal Church is set to consider resolutions allowing same-sex blessings in the church and lifting a de facto ban on gay bishops, both of which are opposed by a majority of Anglicans worldwide.


Jefferts Schori, as she often does, called on Episcopalians to focus on more than the current sexuality debates – to care for the environment and the poor in particular.

One section that caught my eye is when the presiding bishop spoke of “subsidiarity,” a word rooted in Catholic social teaching that encourages local responses over centralized authority. (Pope Benedict XVI’s July 7 encyclical discusses the theory at length.) Jefferts Schori herself was raised Catholic (as was House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson) and educated by nuns until age 9.

Here’s what she said: “Some of the ecumenists in here will twitch at this word, but we should be in the business of subsidiarity – the church as a whole should not be doing mission work that can be done better at a more local level. [snip]

We might also consider putting in that category the big picture issues we can’t yet agree on – the ones for which we have many, more local, and varied understandings, recognizing the different contexts may require different responses.”

Now, maybe I’m reading between the lines too much here, but doesn’t that look like encouragement for local options for gay blessings and bishops? It will be interesting to see how this theme develops through the GC, which runs through July 17.

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