Today Katharine Jefferts Schori was installed as the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA. Pray for our sister in Christ as she takes on this new leadership role.
ENS reports:
Jefferts Schori called the Church to live out "the vision of shalom embodied in the Millennium Development Goals that the Church committed itself to at the 75th General Convention.
"That vision of abundant life is achievable in our own day, but only with the passionate commitment of each and every one of us," she said to applause. "It is God's vision of homecoming for all humanity."
The Gospel for the service was Luke 4:14-21, in which Jesus reads from Isaiah 61, one of Jefferts Schori's favorite passages; the prophet proclaims his mission "to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor ..." Jesus tells those listening in the synagogue that "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Jefferts Schori said that the scripture can be fulfilled in our hearing "in the will to make peace with one who disdains our theological position – for his has merit, too, as the fruit of faithfulness. In the courage to challenge our legislators to make poverty history, to fund AIDS work in Africa, the distribution of anti-malarial mosquito nets, and primary schools where all children are welcomed. In the will to look within our own hearts and confront the shadows that darken the dream that God has planted there.
"That scripture is fulfilled each time we reach beyond our narrow self-interest to call another home. That scripture is fulfilled in ways both small and large, in acts of individuals and of nations, whenever we seek the good of the other, for our own good and final homecoming is wrapped up in that."
She called the Church to "a deep and abiding hope" and "a hope that has the audacity to join Jesus in proclaiming the fulfillment of the scriptures and "join the raucous throngs in creation, the sea creatures and the geological features who leap for joy at the vision of all creation restored – restored to proper relationship, to all creation come home at last."
Amen to that.
Related Post: Episcopal Church Names Katharine Jefferts Schori As Presiding Bishop
Photo credit: ENS photo Alex Dyer
