Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori visited Nashotah House yesterday. It was a visit marked by controversy since the board consists of both Episcopalians and members of churches that broke away from the Episcopal Church.
Still, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, she was received graciously by the seminary community.
…[T]he seminary works to nurture an ethos — something it calls Pax Nashotah — in which individuals with theologically diverse views live and work respectfully together.
“The idea that no matter where you come from, we are all one in Christ, and that’s all that matters,” said Father Steven Peay, Nashotah’s dean of academic affairs, who teaches homiletics and church history. “We don’t want to let the daily politics get in the way of trying to live as Jesus intended.”
Jefferts Schori, who received a gracious welcome at Nashotah on Thursday, said that is true of all Episcopal seminaries, but that she was grateful to experience it firsthand at there.
“That’s one of the gifts of bringing students together from different parts of the church. But it has been wonderful to see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears,” said Jefferts Schori, who met with students, faculty, clergy and bishops throughout the day and took part in an Evensong service at which she delivered the sermon.
“This place has such a long tradition in the Episcopal Church,” she said. “I value that, and I want to see that it continues. The witness of this place is important to who we are as Episcopalians.”
The decision to extend the invitation to Schori prompted the resignation of Nashotah House’s longest-serving trustee, and an honorary trustee, both founding members of the Anglican Church in North America.
Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, whose diocese broke with the Episcopal church and has been sued over church property, resigned, saying he “could not be associated with an institution that honors her.
See also: Presiding Bishop preaches at Nashotah House – ENS Blog