Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop, and the Rev. Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies attended a conference on Saturday sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina.
PAWLEYS ISLAND – Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, thus chief pastor to 2.1 million Episcopalians in 17 countries, stressed unity and justice to S.C. loyalists Saturday at Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church.
More than 300 Episcopalians, including Jefferts Schori and other state and national TEC leaders, gathered at the historic campus in Pawleys Island on a mild, sunny day, ideal for a day-long “Enthusiastically Episcopalian in South Carolina” Conference.
TEC leaders said the event was intended as a “new beginning” or a “way to move forward” in the wake of an Episcopalian rift in which the majority of the denomination’s S.C. churches have withdrawn from TEC over the last two years.
“None of us can do it all,” Jefferts Schori told the gathering. “None of us can do it in isolation. Where does injustice offend you? Where it burns, let your light shine.”
From the Enthusiastically Episcopalian in South Carolina Conference:
Bishop vonRosenberg was greeted and thanked with a long standing ovation from the people who were packed into the church.
Later, as he delivered his keynote address, he noted that our identity is one that embraces a wide variety of conditions, traditions, and theological beliefs. We are both progressive and conservative, we are both sad and feeling liberated. “We are ‘both-and’ people rather than’ either-or’ people. We are Anglican Episcopalians, and we are enthusiastically so,” he said.
“We have a wonderful opportunity to build a future. The foundation has been laid. Now, what do we want to build on it?” Rather than build on old models, he said, we must “build whatever the spirit of God leads us to build in our day.”
Photo Credit: Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina