Episcopal News Service reports that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be visiting the Anglican churches in Australia and New Zealand over the next two weeks.
“I’m to speak with people there about their conversations around human sexuality and also about their missionary development work — not in the sense of finances but in the sense of leadership development and theological education,” Jefferts Schori told members of Executive Council during their June 16-18 meeting in Maryland. “We’re also going to have a conversation about the work that they’re doing around the Millennium Development Goals, and, obviously, our relationships within the Anglican Communion….”
Archbishop David Moxon of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is quoted by Anglican Taonga news service as saying that “reciprocal visits between provinces are a normal part of our Anglican way of life, and we want to extend the appropriate hospitality to the presiding bishop….”
…Moxon, bishop of Waikato and one of three co-presiding bishop’s of the New Zealand province, said, “There’s no set agenda for this visit, no conferences or summits — we’ll simply be having informal conversations about our respective missions. Her visit is also an opportunity for this church to describe our approach to the questions on sexuality before the Anglican Communion.”
Her itinerary includes preaching at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland and at St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch. She will take part in informal gathering in Christchurch and in a discussion at the University of Canterbury called “Science and Religion – your context or mine?”
In Australia, the presiding bishop will preach at Christ Church St. Lucia in the Diocese of Brisbane, where Archbishop Philip Aspinall of the Anglican Church of Australia serves as bishop. Both Jefferts Schori and Aspinall are members of the the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.