Our new Presiding Bishop and the new president of our House of Deputies seem to have a gift for retail politics. Both are devoting themselves to rallying the faithful, and neither avoids the press. Together they are re-energizing our Church.
Bishop Jefferts Schori, who apparently has some sort of meeting coming up in Africa this week, spent the last seven days in North Carolina, Tennessee (see her address to the Diocese of East Tennessee’s convention, here) and Pennsylvania, where she celebrated the feast day of Absalom Jones. All that on the heels of a trip to Cuba, which, by the way, has appointed its first female bishop.
I particularly like this bit from her speech in East Tennessee:
“Some people understand the mission of the church to be primarily about the Great Commission, which comes later in Matthew’s gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” But both of them are part of loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves, and one cannot be divorced from the other. I don’t imagine that God has any patience with arguments over whether evangelism or social justice ministry is more important. In order to love God and neighbor, we have to do both. Evangelism has to be understood in the sense of our baptismal covenant, as sharing the good news of Christ in both word and deed. And we would do well to recall that we cannot love God whom we cannot see, if we do not love our neighbor, whom we do see.” (emphasis mine.)
Meanwhile, HOD president Bonnie Anderson galvanized a gathering of the faithful in the Diocese of San Joaquin, whose bishop is poised to lead people out of the Episcopal Church.
Every place they have gone, these two women have generated excitement among Church members, and generally positive coverage in the press. We are no longer abetting the right’s campaign to paint us as a dying Church. ++Katharine and Bonnie seem to understand, in a way the leaders of our Church often don’t, the importance of public perception, and lay morale, and all I can say is hooray.
Actually, that’s not all I can say, but I will shut up for now.