Question authority, says Bishop Jefferts Schori

From seattlepi.com [boldface mine]:

The chief symbol of authority in the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, delivered an unusual message to a Seattle gathering of young churchgoers: Question authority.

In a setting that symbolizes entrenched local power -- the Washington Athletic Club -- Bishop Schori urged youthful listeners to "prod" the church, think about the Gospel "in new ways," and challenger their elders on the environment.

"I expect you to hold older generations' feet to the fire for the condition of Creation," Schori argued.

At another point, she told listeners:

"You are living reminders to the rest of us that God is constantly doing a new thing . . . Some people believe the church never changes. The only thing that never changes is a dead body, and that begins to rot."

Elected in 2006 by the Episcopal General Convention, Schori is the woman to hold the post of Presiding Bishop. She is a former oceanographer, with a PhD from Oregon State, and spent part of her girlhood in Lake City.

She is also a resolutely progressive voice in the church, to the dismay of some traditionalists. Schori supported the election of a non-celibate gay, the Rt. Rev. V Gene Robinson, as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire.

Schori has taken a hard line toward dioceses and congregations seeking to sever ties with the Episcopal Church - insisting that property belongs to the parent church - and has shaken up the church's administration. She is moving parts of the Presiding Bishop's staff to four different cities, including Seattle. . .

Schori made clear her displeasure with the decision [of the Archbishop of Canterbury] not to invite the gay bishop.

"It's the archbishop's party and he issues the invitations," she said. "He (Robinson) is going to be there outside the meeting."

In answer to a question about cramped church facilities, Schori replied by saying: "Sometimes I think the (church) buildings are albatrosses." The Presiding Bishop praised what she called "the freedom that comes with simply gathering and being together."

She also urged young people to "think about the Gospel in new ways. It is the obligation of every generation to view God with new eyes."

A question-and-answer session saw the kind of blunt dialogue rarely heard on the visit of a religious dignitary.

Katrina Hamilton, a University of Washington student, talked about how many of her friends are removed from and ignorant of religion, and noted "an increase in the stereotyping of Christians."

"It is much more acceptable in my circle to be gay than to be Christian," said Hamilton.

"We don't live in Christendom anymore," replied Schori, "and that is both a challenge and opportunity." She urged people to ask the question: "How does the way we live proclaim our faith?". . .

Read it all.

New bishop in the Diocese of Olympia

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Sounding as if he were a missionary, an accurate job description in the least churchgoing corner of America, the Rev. Gregory Rickel speaks of being called to "a great challenge and exciting one."

"It's a chance for us to be a model -- if we figure it out -- on how to do church in inhospitable terrain," said Rickel, who will be installed next week as the eighth Episcopal bishop of Olympia. Rickel, 44, may help provide the fresh air badly needed by declining Seattle-area mainline religious denominations.

The Diocese of Olympia, which covers Western Washington, is parched for leadership. Its membership, currently 34,000, has slightly declined during a time when more than a million people moved to the region. Other so-called "mainline" denominations have declined as well. It has prompted a less-than-charitable reaction by some fundamentalists. . .

. . . The new bishop has some tricky moves to make, beginning at the hour of his installation Sept. 15. The outgoing regime at the Diocese of Olympia spent $15,000 to rent Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, despite strong feelings among clergy that the ceremony belonged in a "sacred space," i.e., a church.

Rickel has finessed the ceremony. A big question in the diocese was whether its second-ranking figure, Bishop Suffragen Nedi Rivera, would stay on. Rivera lost in May's voting for diocesan bishop. "She's staying and preaching at my ordination," Rickel said.

Rickel faces another immediate challenge. The conservative leadership at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Oak Harbor voted to leave the diocese and affiliate with an Anglican diocese in Recife, Brazil.

In what's widely viewed as a shortchanging of parishioners who stayed loyal, the Diocese of Olympia signed a covenant that leaves the dissidents in control of the building. Loyalists are confined to a small chapel.

"I'm going to give it attention," Rickel said. "I want to discern the differences between the covenant and what's actually on the ground.". . .

. . . The new bishop brings wit to the job. Brought up a Methodist, he attended a Catholic high school in Little Rock, whose principal tried to interest him in becoming a Roman Catholic priest.

"I told him, 'I like girls. I think the pope is sometimes silly. And I don't like it at communion when you send me to the end of the row.'

"He replied, 'You sound like a damned Episcopalian.' "

Read it all. I don't know anything about the situation at St. Stephen's in Oak Harbor, but it sounds as if their covenant with the diocese might be short-lived. In an earlier story in the Post-Intelligencer, Rickel is quoted as saying:

. . . The Rev. Gregory Rickel, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, said a separation between the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion may be inevitable.

"It may be for our time that we have to be a prophetic witness in the world," reflected Rickel "If we must spend time apart, so be it."

Rickel recalled that the church split in the Civil War -- "fighting bishop" Leonidas Polk led Confederate troops -- but, like the Union, was reunited.

In Rickel's view, however, the church must move beyond the gay issue. "We cannot spend all of our energy on our pathologies," he argued.