From Episcopal News Service
In her opening remarks to the meeting of the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council November 12, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori set the group’s work in the context of mission and ministry.
Executive Council members must “figure out how to communicate the Good News we know in this body” to the diverse communities in which the Episcopal Church exists, especially to those people who have not been touched by the gospel or who are not yet part of a faith community.
“We have remarkable opportunities to speak and do Good News to people who don’t know what that means,” she said.
Both she and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said they are committed to what Jefferts Schori called the “deed-based evangelism” personified in the church’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.
The full story is here, and the PB’s sermon at the opening EC Eucharist is here.
There is an old rule, familiar to those who have taught writing and those who have studied it, that reads “show, don’t tell.” It makes a handy justification for “deed-based evangelism.” But deeds alone aren’t enough when communicating to a mass audience. Supportive though I am of the Millennium Development Goals, I think it would be a mistake to hang the full weight of our evangelistic aspirations on the hope that people will respond positively to the good example we are attempting to set. At some point, to persuade people to embrace our faith, we have to reach them on intimate level. Having them respect our example isn’t enough.
Almost everyone I know respects the daylights out of the Society of Friends, but only a couple of them are Quakers.