Yonat Shimron
(Raleigh) News & Observer
Posted on Fri, Feb. 09, 2007
CHAPEL HILL - Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who faces the prospect of fracture between the liberal Episcopal Church USA and the more conservative Anglican Communion, spoke without apology Thursday about her convictions that gays and lesbians are entitled to full rights.
Her visit to the Triangle, where at least three churches splintered after a gay bishop was ordained in 2003, came just before a trip to Tanzania next week. There she will meet with 38 heads of the national churches of the Anglican Communion, including some who have indicated they will not sit at a table with her.
Jefferts Schori, 52, said Thursday she would not waver from forging a new way forward for the 2.4-million member Episcopal Church. That new way includes a commitment to the full equality of gays and lesbians, which she and many others in the denomination see as a new civil rights issue.
"Our labors in this church continue to sing of hope for the full flourishing of all God's children, black, white, native, Asian, women, men, gay and straight," Jefferts Schori said. "As long as any of us is restrained by custom, law, prejudice or bigotry, we all remain in chains."
The presiding bishop spoke at a service of Holy Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross where she honored the 30th anniversary of the first black woman ordained in the Episcopal Church USA. That woman, Pauli Murray, grew up in Durham, the granddaughter of a slave, and celebrated her first Eucharist in the tiny chapel adjacent to the church on Franklin Street. The theme for the day came from the book "Proud Shoes," which Murray wrote.
"I know I stand here today only because she stood here before me," said Jefferts Schori, alluding to Murray, who died in 1985. "Her proud shoes carried many others down the road of freedom."
There was standing room only for the hourlong Eucharist service in the brick, 1848 chapel. Joining Jefferts Schori was the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, Michael Curry, the first African-American elected as top bishop in a Southern state.
In an interview, Jefferts Schori, a calm and confident woman who is a former oceanographer and an active pilot with more than 500 logged hours, said she would not fret over her encounter with the heads of the other churches in Tanzania.
"The road to the cross leads to new life," she said, suggesting that she would not retreat from her position if it came to schism.
Many former Episcopalians hold a much more conservative view of sexuality.
"The stand on homosexual behavior is one of the results of having a different theology," said John Finch of Raleigh, formerly a member of Christ Church and now a member of Holy Trinity, an Anglican church in Raleigh. "It's a universalist theology, and it's different from Christian theology."
That is also the view of many in the Anglican Communion, the association of self-governed Anglican churches of which the Episcopal Church is one member. Each regional or national church has full autonomy and the Church of England is considered the "mother church." Its fastest-growing segment is in Africa, where views on sexuality tend to be far more conservative.
But the rift has been felt in the Triangle, too.
Two congregations -- one in Raleigh and the other in Durham -- had significant defections, and a third, also in Raleigh, left the Episcopal Church altogether, after the ordination of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Jefferts Schori, then bishop of Nevada, voted to ordain Robinson, as did Curry of North Carolina.
Those who remain in the Episcopal Church said they were proud of Jefferts Schori's stand.
"I hope it can only get better -- with more inclusivity," said Peg Rees of Chapel Hill, who attended the service Thursday along with the Eucharist celebrated by Pauli Murray in February 1977.
Indeed, nearly four years after Robinson's controversial ordination, allegiances have become cemented, and the Episcopal Church is moving forward -- focusing on mission work such as alleviating poverty and working to protect the environment.
"Our task is to focus on mission and not on what divides us," said Jefferts Schori earlier in the day at the annual meeting in Raleigh of the Episcopal Urban Caucus, a national group that fights for an end to poverty and racism.
Later, in Chapel Hill, she echoed that involvement in matters outside church politics.
"We have dreams to dream," she said, "proud shoes to walk in and work to do."
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