As part of her three-day visit of the Diocese of Kentucky, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori led a tent meeting, Episcopal style. She presided over baptisms, confirmations and a communion service amid a blend of formal liturgy and an informal atmosphere reminiscent of Kentucky’s frontier revivals, including hymns such as “Shall We Gather at the River.”
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports:
She has studied deep-sea creatures as an oceanographer, piloted her own planes, become the first female leader of the Episcopal Church and traveled the world trying to resolve the controversies touched off by her denomination’s ordination of an openly gay bishop.
But for Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, yesterday marked something new. She acknowledged it was the first time she had ever led a tent revival.
And…
The service in Leitchfield took place at the diocese’s All Saints Retreat and Conference Center, located along the Rough River.
Jefferts Schori baptized four people, confirmed several others and presided over communion.
“Each part of God’s church has its own context,” Jefferts Schori said in an interview yesterday morning, applauding the effort to express the Gospel “in a way that could be understood by the people who live there. It’s not just language, but it’s musical idiom and visual support.”
Her itinerary also includes worship services yesterday in Paducah and today in Louisville.
Read about it here.