Katharine Schori, the woman elected to head the Episcopal Church in the United States, cannot or will not affirm one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith -- that Jesus Christ is The Way, The Truth and The Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. A sad day it is when an institution claiming to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church chooses as its leader someone who does not hold, or is at least incapable of expressing the fact that she does hold, to one of the most fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. In fact, on rereading, I am not even sure that she recognises Jesus as God. I not only do not recognise her as the head of her church, I do not recognise her as a Christian.
If this sounds incredible, read for yourself these comments excerpted from an interview with National Public Radio:
RY: TIME Magazine asked you an interesting question, we thought, "Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?" And your answer, equally interesting, you said "We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box." And I read that and I said "What are you: a Unitarian?!?" [laughs] What are you-- that is another concern for people, because, they say Scripture says that Jesus says he was The Light and The Way and the only way to God the Father.
KJS: Christians understand that Jesus is the route to God. Umm-- that is not to say that Muslims, or Sikhs, or Jains, come to God in a radically different way. They come to God through... human experience... through human experience of the divine. Christians talk about that in terms of Jesus.
RY: So you're saying there are other ways to God.
KJS: Uhh... human communities have always searched for relationship that which is beyond them.. with the ultimate.. with the divine. For Christians, we say that our route to God is through Jesus. Uhh.. uh..that doesn't mean that a Hindu.. uh.. doesn't experience God except through Jesus. It-it-it says that Hindus and people of other faith traditions approach God through their.. own cultural contexts; they relate to God, they experience God in human relationships, as well as ones that transcend human relationships; and Christians would say those are our experiences of Jesus; of God through the experience of Jesus.
RY: It sounds like you're saying it's a parallel reality, but in another culture and language.
KJS: I think that's accurate.. I think that's accurate.
Read the full transcript here
9 comments:
As I've said before, the tradition of priestesses belongs to the pagan religions...!
Fr Jerome,
Priest, priestess or whatever is irrelevant in this instance: she is preaching -- and what she is preaching is not Christianity.
I think what Fr. Jerome means is that bending the practice of the church in an essentially pagan direction opens the way to scrapping of all Christian distinctiveness. In that sense I would find his comment an incisive analysis of the root of the problem.
I do not find his thought irrelevant.
Ms. Schori is at least being consistent in that her praxis and her doctrine appear to be of a piece. Her acceptance of this world's standards in sexuality and in other things, leads inexorably to a theology in accord with this world's thinking.
tis it is that what she is preaching is not Christianity.
ed
Well spoken, poet reader. By choosing to be "ordained", she affirms that she doesn't believe in the Holy Bible as being the word of God, and makes it clear she intends to violate the clear teachings of the Holy Bible. Father John Wesley once said: To allow that the Bible has even one error invalidates it all. This is a paraphrase (I don't have the exact quote in front of me at present). But his point is clear.
ed - you've got it.
"I am not even sure that she recognises Jesus as God".
No, I think she doesn't.
"Human experiences..."
"Human relationships..."
AND NOTHING ELSE.
On the "Today" show this morning, all Schori talked about was "feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc." (which are all laudable things for Christians to do, of course), but she never mentioned evangelizing the US or bringing people to faith in Christ. She said the opposition to her was a "very small minority". I believe entire dioceses pulling out is far more than a "very small minority". In our local paper today (which had an interview with her) she never once commented on any goals of a nature of bringing converts into the Christian faith. When asked what she wanted to say to Anglicans who oppose her, she said: "Get over it."
Albion,
I'm glad you found my blog "interesting" - I'll wait for more specific feedback to see if that's a good thing or not! :-)
At any rate, I have an acute interest in Anglicanism and specifically the Continuing Anglican communities. Though my motives are likely offencive to most Anglicans, not everyone thinks of them that way. I am a great advocate of Catholic Œcumenism and would love to see more effort to reconcile the Anglicans to the Holy See.
The problem is that for Anglicans to become Roman Catholic they have to adopt a Protestant liturgy! (Unless, of course, the convert has access to a Tridentine parish...)
God bless,
Dave Hodges
I don't find that she's denying that Jesus is God. It seems to me that she's trying to answer this question: Do non-Christians have any experience of God? And she wants to answer: yes. She does so by pointing to experiences that might be emblematic of common grace in any life (the gift of relationships, etc.), and saying that Christians recognize these as somehow Jesus's work.
No? If not, how would you all speak about God's relationship to non-Christians?
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