The installation of Katharine Jefferts Schori indicates that the Episcopal Church, as a physical and organizational representation of Jesus Christ, is dead. Her installation as presiding bishop shows the continual decline of the mainstream churches.
In one of her post-installation interviews (2 Nov 2006 Miami Herald) she says, ”It feels a bit un-Anglican to insist that we can’t talk to each other.” However, it is her very beliefs that are “un-Anglican”, and un-Christian.
In an interview with the Associated Press (reprinted here in the Washington Post), she is described as “Jefferts Schori personally believes in a relationship with God through Jesus but does not see it as the only true path.” I’m confused. What Bible is she reading? I know it’s no politically correct. It hurts my heart to say and believe it, but Jesus says that the only way to the Father is through him. As a member of a purportedly Christian church (let’s not even touch the priest, bishop, and now presiding bishop), she is supposed to believe in Jesus. The Episcopal church regularly recites the Nicene and Apostolic Creeds, but this proves the very danger of the creeds and the liturgical tradition as a whole.
Here we have a person who speaks the creeds, has even taught theology, and yet while she swears that she believes these creeds, she theologically opposes them.
The Nicene Creed states:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
The Apostle’s Creed begins:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord…
Yet she argues that Jesus is not the only way. Yet she swears that he is her Lord. It is this confusion that is part and parcel of all the mainstream Protestant and Lutheran denominations.
Her original occupation as a oceanographer, her seeming desire to challenge the seeming “men-only” clubs, also seems to be a driving factor. Are the churches so desperate for clergy, that they cannot, or choose not to, see what they are committing themselves to?
As I have focused so long on the fall of the Episcopal Church, it must be obvious that that particular church is important to me. I was baptized when I was three months old. It was the church of my childhood, not necessarily my faith (another area where the Protestant and Lutheran churches are failing, the bringing up in faith of their youth). I will still watch and pray, but the Episcopal Church can no longer be looked upon as a torch bearer of faith in Jesus Christ.
The Episcopal Church is often referred to as the “Catholic-Lite” church, but now, however, it is the “Christ-Lite” church.