Bishop Katharine's Christmas Message for 2014

Christmas message 2014
The altar hanging at an English Advent service was made of midnight blue, with these words across its top: “We thank you that darkness reminds us of light.” Facing all who gathered there to give thanks were images of night creatures – a large moth, an owl, a badger, and a bat – cryptic and somewhat mysterious creatures that can only be encountered in the darkness.
As light ebbs from the days and the skies of fall, many in the Northern Hemisphere associate dark with the spooks and skeletons of secular Hallowe’en celebrations. That English church has reclaimed the connection between creator, creation, and the potential holiness of all that is. It is a fitting reorientation toward the coming of One who has altered those relationships toward new possibilities for healing and redemption.
Advent leads us into darkness and decreasing light. Our bodies slow imperceptibly with shorter days and longer nights, and the merriness and frantic activity around us are often merely signs of eager hunger for light and healing and wholeness.
The Incarnation, the coming of God among us in human flesh, happened in such a quiet and out of the way place that few noticed at first. Yet the impact on human existence has been like a bolt of lightning that continues to grow and generate new life and fire in all who share that hunger.
Jesus is among us like a flitting moth – will we notice his presence in the street-sleeper? He pierces the dark like a silent, streaking owl seeking food for hungry and defenseless nestlings. He will overturn this world’s unjust foundations like badgers undermining a crooked wall. Like the bat’s sonar, his call comes to each one uniquely – have we heard his urgent “come and follow”?
God is among us, and within us, and around us, encountering, nudging, loving, transforming the world and its creatures toward the glorious dream the shepherds announced so many years ago, toward the beloved community of prophetic dreams, and the nightwatch that proclaims “all is well, fear not, the Lord is here.”
May Christ be born anew in you this Christmastide. May his light burn in you, and may you labor to spread it in the darkness. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and it is the harbinger of peace for all creation.

Civil Discourse in America Forum at Christ Church, Philadelphia

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/panelists-named-episcopal-church-forum-civil-discourse-america-finding-common-ground-greater-


Bishop Katharine gave the keynote speech at this discussion at Christ Church Philadelphia. I was able to attend and snapped this photo from one of the large screens they set up in the church. It was a lively discussion from a panel of people from diverse backgrounds.

Tuesday (Sept. 23): Not seeking a second nine-year term in office

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/09/23/episcopal-churchs-katharine-jefferts-schori-will-seek-re-election/

July 26, 2014- Celebration of the "Philadelphia Eleven's" 40th Anniversary

What a joy it was to be present in the company of so many important women in the church! From some of the first female priests in the church, to the first female bishop (Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris) to, of course, the first female Presiding Bishop! The Church of the Advocate was filled to capacity and filled with the Holy Spirit. You can see a video of the service on the official Episcopal Church website, and at this link here. The text of her sermon is there too:  http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/07/27/40-years-ordained-2000-years-in-ministry-celebration/

You won't be disappointed! I also got some great photos of our PB:

Procession

"Put on your shoes and take up those crosses. We’re marching upward to Zion."

Procession . I had an aisle seat and got this good shot.

Myself on the left , of course the PB, and 2 of my friends at the reception. I wore the pink "It's a Girl" button that commemerated her election as PB. Thought it appropriate since it was a day to celebrate women! She noticed the button and was very humbled!

Bishop Katharine to Celebrate the Ministry of Women July 26

I am fortunate to be from Philadelphia, where the first Episcopal women priests were ordained. The 40th anniversary of this event will be held at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia on July 26. Katharine Jefferts Schori will Celebrate a special Eucharist. This will be the third time I will be in her presence. I will post pictures here. 



http://40yearsordained2000yearsinministry.com/

Celebrate the Ministry of All Women

on the occasion of

The 40th Anniversary of Women’s Priestly Ordination

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA  – On Saturday, July 26th, the Diocese of Pennsylvania in conjunction with others throughout the church is hosting a joyful celebration of the 40th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. The ministry of all women: past, present and future, is the focus for the full day of programming to include a morning symposium at Temple University, an afternoon Holy Eucharist at Church of the Advocate where the 1974 ordinations took place, and a reception and ministry exposé in the Paul and Christine Washington Center gymnasium on the campus of The Advocate. Women and men of all church orders and dioceses are invited to sign-up for space to display and discuss particular ministries where women are vitally engaged especially in leadership roles. This should be an exciting day-end gathering that celebrates not only the courage of the men and women who engaged the Spirit-led irregular ordinations of 40 and 41 years ago, but also demonstrates the enormous array gifts that propels God’s love and grace into the world.

At the symposium (8:30 a.m. to 2 pm), Dr. Fredrica Thompsett, Mary Wolfe Professor Emerita of Historical Theology at Episcopal Divinity School, will serve as keynote speaker. A panel discussion and luncheon will follow. Panelists include the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carol Gallagher, the Rev. Miguelina Howell, the Rev. Pamela Nesbit, Archdeacon, and Nokomis Wood. The panel will be moderated by the Very Rev. Katherine H. Ragsdale, Dean and President of the Episcopal Divinity School. The Rev. Dr. Nancy Wittig, one of the original Philadelphia eleven ordinands, will close the symposium with a meditation. At 3 pm, our Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, will preside and preach at the Holy Eucharist at Church of the Advocate just blocks from the symposium site.

Easter Message 2014

“Where and how will we look for the Body of Christ, risen and rising?” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori presents in her Easter Message 2014. “Will we share the life of that body as an Easter people, transformed by resurrection and sent to transform the world in turn?”



The following is the Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message 2014.







Easter Message 2014



The tomb is empty, and nobody knows where the body is. Mary Magdalene tells the others about the mysterious disappearance, but they give up and go home. Mary stays behind, weeping, and then fails to recognize the risen one before her. As the days pass, each resurrected encounter begins in surprise or anonymity – the disciples fishing all night without catching, Jesus cooking breakfast on the beach, the two on their way to Emmaus. Nobody recognizes him at first sight.



Clearly the risen body is not identical to the Jesus who was crucified. People mistake him for a stranger. He enters locked rooms. He walks along the path to Emmaus for a long time without being recognized. Crucifixion, death, and resurrection result in a transformed body – with evident scars, but changed nonetheless. When he reminds others of God’s banquet, meant for the whole world – when human beings are fed and watered, delivered from prison, gathered from exile across the earth, and healed and reconciled into a community of peace – his companions discover that he has once again been in their midst.



What does that resurrection reality mean for the Body of Christ of which we are part? How does the risen Body of Christ – what we often call the church – differ from the crucified one? That Body seems to be most lively when it lives closer to the reality of Good Friday and the Easter mystery. In the West, that Body has suffered a lot of dying in recent decades. It is diminished, some would say battered, increasingly punctured by apathy and taunted by cultured despisers. That body bears little resemblance to royal images of recent memory – though, like Jesus, it is being mocked. The body remembers and grieves, like the body of Israel crying in the desert, “why did you bring us out here to die?” or the crucified body who cries, “My God, why have you forsaken me,” or “why have you abandoned us?” In other contexts the Body of Christ is quite literally dying and spilling its lifeblood – in Pakistan and Sudan, in Iraq and Egypt – and in those ancient words of Tertullian, the blood of martyrs is becoming the seed of the church.



The Body of Christ is rising today where it is growing less self-centered and inwardly focused, and living with its heart turned toward the cosmic and eternal, its attention focused intently on loving God and neighbor. This Body is rising to stand in solidarity with criminals sentenced to death, with widows and orphans, with the people of the land who slave over furrows and lettuce fields to feed the world. This Body can be found passing through walls and boundaries that have long been misused to keep the righteous “safe” and “pure.” The Body is recognized when the hungry are fed – on the lakeshore with broiled fish, on the road to Emmaus, on street corners and city parks, in food pantries and open kitchens, in feeding neighbor nations and former enemies, and as the Body gathers once again to remember its identity and origin – Christ is risen for the sake of all creation.



Where and how will we look for the Body of Christ, risen and rising? Will we share the life of that body as an Easter people, transformed by resurrection and sent to transform the world in turn?



Christ is risen, Alleluia! Alleluia, Christ is risen indeed!







The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori



Presiding Bishop and Primate



The Episcopal Church

Happy 60th Birthday, Bishop Katharine!

26 March 2014

O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we
pray, on your servant Katharine as she begins another year. Grant that she may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen her trust in your goodness all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(BCP pg. 830)

Happy 60th birthday, Bishop Katharine! May the Lord Bless You and Keep You!Shalom!

Archbishop congratulates Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, on honorary Oxford degree

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2014/02/archbishop-congratulates-bishop-katharine-jefferts-schori,-the-presiding-bishop-of-the-episcopal-church,-on-honorary-oxford-degree.aspx

Archbishop Justin has welcomed news that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is to be awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of Oxford.

He said: “I am delighted by the news that the Most Revd Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori is to receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford. This award, richly deserved, reaffirms Bishop Katherine’s remarkable gifts of intellect and compassion, which she has dedicated to the service of Christ. Prior to becoming ordained, Bishop Katherine pursued a career in oceanography, and her enduring deep commitment to the environment has evolved into a profound dedication to stewardship of our planet and humankind, especially in relieving poverty and extending the love and hospitality of Christ to those on the edges of society. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said of Bishop Katherine, "In her version of reality, everything is sacred except sin." It must be noted, too, that Bishop Katherine’s achievements serve – and will continue to serve – as a powerful model for women seeking to pursue their vocations in the church.”