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Friday October 26, 2007

Primate of the Episcopal Church calls for global peace-making on the occasion of her investiture

Susana Barrera, WASHINGTON, Estados Unidos, November 4, 2006

 “You and I have been invited into that ministry of global peace-making that makes a Taxi Heathrow Airport place and affirms a welcome for all of God's creatures. But more than welcome, that ministry invites all to feast until they are filled with God's abundance,” said the Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori, Saturday, November 4, on the occasion of her investiture as Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA

 Jefferts Schori, was Bishop of Nevada before being elected on June 18 as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, for a term of ten years. She is the first woman in ECUSA to hold that office. One of the first actions of her new office has been to call other primates of the Anglican Communion to reconciliation and working together in harmony. 
 
The service of investiture took place in the historic Washington National Cathedral, with hundreds of members of the church present and live coverage on Internet. The preparations for the service had taken months, with some of the singing done in Spanish, as well as the final blessing given by the new primate. On Sunday, November 5, Jefferts Schori was seated in the same cathedral at the service of celebration of All Saints Day.

“The health of our neighbors, in its broadest understanding, is the mission that God has given us. We cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbors into a more whole and holy state of life. If some in this church feel wounded by recent decisions, then our salvation, our health as a body is at some hazard, and it becomes the duty of all of us to seek healing and wholeness,” said Jefferts Schori, who took Ephesians 4:1-6 as the text for her sermon.

In her moving sermon, she pointed out that in the vision of the church, “There's a wonderful Hebrew word for that vision and work – shalom. It doesn't just mean the sort of peace that comes when we're no longer at war. It's that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board, it's a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed, it's a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given, it is a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another, it's a vision of a world where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God.” 

Bishop Jefferts Schori is 52, married, and has a doctorate in oceanography and has worked in the U.S. fisheries service. She is fluent in Spanish and represents the liberal wing of the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Shori succeeds Bishop Frank Griswold and assumes her office at a time of division within the Anglican Communion, following the election of a gay bishop and the controversy over the blessing of same sex unions.