"The Door Has Been Open For Many Years"

Only a few weeks after this interview with NPR took place, the Diocese of Los Angeles elected an openly gay female for bishop.

To listen to the interview, go here:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/223/0/1578612/WABE.Features/Episcopal.Presiding.Bishop.Says.Door.Still.Open.to.Gay.Bishops
Full text of the interview is here:
November 16, 2009By Denis O'Hayer

6 years ago, Eugene Robinson became the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. But internal battles continue. Some parishes left the church, to join other parts of the Anglican Communion. This summer, the church's General Convention resolved that the screening process for new bishops is open to gays and lesbians. Two years ago, Episcopal leaders had said they'd hold off on gay bishops. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told WABE's Denis O'Hayer that's not a contradiction.



KJS: We did not see that as a reversal. The Canons or the Church Law of The Episcopal Church has for a long time said that the discernment process is open to any baptized person. So it does not represent a change. It represents a reaffirmation of what church law has said for a long time. It did not say anything about repudiating the statement that the bishops made in 2007.

NPR: So the bottom line is it fair to say that at least the door has been opened for gay and lesbian bishops in addition to Bishop Robinson.

KJS: The door has been open for many years.

NPR: So if an openly gay or lesbian person were to make it through to the stage where he or she could be consecrated bishop you would go ahead with that.

KJS: It is my duty, my canonical duty as Presiding Bishop, to take order for the consecration of a bishop whose election has been affirmed by the consent process.

NPR: The Archbishop of Canterbury said that we need to have a real thorough exploration of all of this and we need to have a wider consent within the communion in order to go ahead with either the consecration of gay bishops or blessings of gay unions. He said that does not exist in the communion right now. How do you feel about that?

KJS: The conversations been going on in The Episcopal Church for 45 years. The reality is that same-sex unions are blessed in many churches of the Anglican Communion. Not just in the United States or Canada, but in the Church of England. Not officially but that is reality.

NPR: Do you think there is scriptural basis for what the convention did and what is it.

KJS: The scriptural basis for what the convention affirmed about our discernment process is that each human being is made in the image of God.

NPR: I think perhaps for some folks the distinction is not about how one is made but how one behaves. All of the arguments I've read center around behavior, ways of acting, is there a difference between the two?

KJS: In some circumstances yes. My experience in talking to people about this is that some people who object to the ordination of gay and lesbian people really begin with their orientation. They cannot see beyond that. Others will admit that gay and lesbian people might be created in the image of god and be fit mattered whatever their orientation. But object to the fact that some live in partnered relationships. What the church is really called to do is support all its members in living holy lives as exemplars of God's love in the world. I think the biggest challenge we're having right now is knowing what holy living looks like. We do not reject people who give evidence of gluttony; we do not prima facie reject people who give evidence of excessive consumerism. I think those are far more challenging issues than long-term committed relationships of a person with the same gender.

NPR: You said in a conversation with me last year that approaching people who disagree we need to be in conversation and that's not lobbing words at each other its listening to each other. What would you say to somebody who says ‘ok this vote by the general convention is not conversation but a form of escalation'?

KJS: Legislative processes are not terrible conducive to conversation when we push something to a vote we create winners and losers. The decisions of General Convention last summer I don't honestly believe pushed things any farther. We simply re-iterated what the standards of this church are at this time.

NPR: That is not what at least some of those who've been unhappy with it are saying their saying ‘this is legislation this is top down and it is going in the wrong direction.'

KJS: It's hard to understand General Convention as being top down. It's nearly 1,000, its more than a 1000 people gathered together representing the broad diversity of this Church, seeking discernment in the name of Christ together. It's not an archbishop saying this is how things must be.

NPR: You've probably also hear people saying, 'this is going too slowly. If this is right, why not just do it the people who are gonna leave are gonna leave any why'?

KJS: Our tradition has been called the middle way for a very long time and its attention to the fact that we are called to deliberate action. Considered action. And it doesn't happen as fast as some would like it. It happens faster than others would like.

NPR: But in the mean time you are spending more and more of your resources on legal battles. Doesn't that take away from what the church should really be about?

KJS: The reality is that this is a portion of our mission. Preserving the assets of our church is a part of our responsibility. It's certainly not the whole of our responsibility. There are abundant resources for the work of the gospel. Our task is to focus on the ways they can be most productive.

NPR: Pope Benedict has said that or has started a process of really opening the door easing the process for Anglicans or Episcopalians who want to leave in groups and become Roman Catholics. They could keep their churches, they could keep much of the liturgy, they could keep the clergy, even married clergy. This is obviously still in the works, but how do you see that? Do you see that as an open challenge to The Episcopal Church?

KJS: No, there've been provisions that are effectively identical for nearly 30 years in the United States. Yes, some clergy have departed The Episcopal Church, some Episcopalians have departed The Episcopal Church for the Roman church. On the other hand, Roman Catholic clergy and people join The Episcopal Church. One of the Bishops in Florida says that the road between Canterbury and Rome is well traveled and our job is to make sure the stop lights work. I really don't think this is going to have any significant impact on the church in the United States or in the other parts of the world where The Episcopal Church exists. Despite these provisions, my understanding is that there are only four congregations that have developed as a result of this in the last 30 years. So it's unlikely to have any significant impact here.

NPR: You don't think the announcement as public as it is, is really an open invitation to Anglicans to crossover?

KJS: I don't think it is directed at The Episcopal Church.

NPR: The last time we were together I asked you a question, what do you pray for? When you pray now, do you do so from a position of feeling that the challenges facing the church are greater or smaller than they were?

KJS: I see challenges as invitations to growth. Challenge means that we're taking notice of the fact that we have not yet arrived at the fullness of the kingdom of God and therefore we have work to do. In The Episcopal Church, that has to do with celebrating our reality as a multi-cultural church and discovering the reality that there are vast numbers of un-churched people around us, who are hungry for the hope that the Gospel offers. There are countless numbers of people around us who need the hope that this church presents through ministry, with those on the margins.

NPR: So you don't see schism as inevitable or even having started?

KJS: No, no absolutely not.

End