New Episcopal Leader Braces for Gay-Rights Test

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: New Episcopal Leader Braces for Gay-Rights Test
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: February 11, 2007


(Earl Wilson/The New York Times)
Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will face a skeptical group in Tanzania.

....This week, Bishop (Katherine) Jefferts Schori will represent the Episcopal Church at a meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with the presiding bishops of the 37 other provinces in the global Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest church body. Some of those bishops, known as primates, have broken their ties with the American church after it ordained an openly gay bishop and permitted the blessing of same-sex unions.

Some primates have said they will not sit at the same table with Bishop Jefferts Schori. Some have threatened to walk out of the meeting.

In an interview in her office last week, Bishop Jefferts Schori said the conflict was more about “biblical interpretation” than about homosexuality.

“We have had gay bishops and gay clergy for millennia,” she said. “The willingness to be open about that is more recent.”

She said that what she wanted to convey to her fellow primates was that despite the highly-publicized departure of some congregations (a spokesman said 45 of 7,400 have left and affiliated with provinces overseas), the Episcopal Church has the support of most members, who are engaged in worship and mission work, and not fixated on this controversy....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/us/11bishop.html?hp&ex=1171170000&en=db146594d0ee7cca&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[ulysses]

1. "Some of those bishops, known as primates"

*insert lame joke wondering about the mammalian order of non-presiding bishops*

Seriously, I wish her well.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. They probably aren't too happy about having a woman as presiding bishop

either.