ECUSA Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori
The Episcopal Presiding Bishop sole this morning to the ELCA Conference d Bishops… “The Episcopal Church is present in 15 countries besides the United States… We are multilingual, multinational and multicultural…”
“We are in full communion with Moravians, the Church of Sweden… We are in dialog with Methodists and Presbyterians…”
September 30, 2011 at 9:10 am
Schori: “If we take all our full communion relationships together… we have a truly remarkable… tool for mission.
“‘The church exists by mission, just as fire exists by burning.’ — Emil Brunner
“Baptism, rather than denominational identity, defines our participation in mission.
“No one church is capable of the broad reach that is needed… It will take the whole church together.
“It’s not just Lutherans and Episcopalians. We share a common understanding of baptism across an immense expanse of the body of Christ.
Schori also said the planting of new congregations needs more cooperative effort. Denominationalism is declining. We could learn something from the East. Can we work toward a common understanding of mission work?
Our work against poverty and the indignity of the injustices of poverty still has many segregated aspects. We have a shared staff member in Washington. We share a common perspective. We already work together to resettle refugees.
Our largerly shared theological voice means we could speak more with one voice to Catholics, Baptists and Muslims.
“I pray the coming years may deepen our incarnate relationships. May God bless us that we may be a blessing to a hungry and hurting world.”