Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Letter to the Editor

Below is a letter to the editor published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Monday, Dec. 17.

I sent it in reply to a letter which repeated the same 'accusation" against the presiding bishop that Bishop Jack Iker and his followers have been using since before she was seated as presiding bishop. They always say this about her in tones that imply that she also kills kittens and sacrifices small children to Satan.

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Richard Kahle of Arlington claims the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, has said Jesus Christ is not the only path to God.

Here’s a surprise for Mr. Kahle -- the Pope believes the same thing, as does the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Here is the Q&A from the Time Magazine interview shortly after her election as presiding bishop:

Q. “Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?”
A. “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God would not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”

This view is similar to that of Vatican II, namely that Jesus Christ is the final self-revelation of God in the world, but that salvation is possible outside of the Christian Church.

In a recent interview with a group of teen journalists, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was asked, “Do you believe other faiths are valid?”

He replied, “Everyone has a right to their own faith. For example, I have met many Muslims and have learned a lot from them. However, I want people of other faiths to respect my conviction as I respect theirs.”

As for Mr. Kahle’s other statements, The Episcopal Church has never recognized gay marriages, nor has it authorized rites for the blessing of same sex unions. It remains a member of the Anglican Communion, which is not a church but a group of autonomous provinces in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop has no power in or authority over any province in the communion except The Church of England.

In The Episcopal Church, diocesan canons are trumped by national canons, which state that all property is held in trust for the national church. Anyone trying to take that property should expect to be held accountable.

Katie Sherrod
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Now the bishop's supporters are escalating to "She [Katharine Jefferts Schori] has denied the divinity of Christ." One man asked loudly at a forum at my parish on Sunday what the rector was going to to do when -- not if -- when she made it canon law that all of us had to deny the divinity of Christ.

Do you detect a note of hysteria here?

One wonders why, if they are so convinced of the Godly necessity of schism, they have to lie about the presiding bishop to shore up their "case."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hysteria? Hysterical is more like it. One has to laugh. Ignoring for a moment the ludicrous notion that ++Katharine wants to kill kittens - oops, I mean deny the divinity of Jesus - who knew the Presiding Bishop had the power to make canon law? Until Sunday at the forum that idea had just never occurred to me.

You can't make up this stuff. Good letter and commentary, Katie.
-Amy

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone ever commented that the PB wanted to "kill kittens"...just one more example of the secular left misstating the argument.

The fact is, who would have thought just a few short years ago that any PB would manufacture the notion of a "national church" and would lay claim on behalf of such a mythical organization to diocean property? Further, I have yet to find a single condemnation from the PB of Ann Holmes Redding, who declared herself a Muslim and Episcoplean at the same time or of Bishop Vincent Warner, who told the Seattle Times that he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting.

You truly cannot make this stuff up.

Kind Regards, Patrick

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone ever commented that the PB wanted to "kill kittens"...just one more example of the secular left misstating the argument. The fact is, who would have thought just a few short years ago that any PB would manufacture the notion of a "national church" and would lay claim on behalf of such a mythical organization to diocesan property?

Further, I have yet to find a single condemnation from the PB of Ann Holmes Redding, who declared herself a Muslim and Episcopalian at the same time or of Bishop Vincent Warner, who told the Seattle Times that he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting.

You truly cannot make this stuff up.

Kind Regards, Patrick

Katie Sherrod said...

Dear Patrick,
I guess you really really really don't like this letter, do you, since you keep making the same comments about it.
Please read the blog again. I never said that anyone actually accused KJS of killing kittens. I said they used a tone of voice that implied she did. It is a descriptive image, not a reported fact.
The presiding bishop rarely, if ever, comments on an individual priest, leaving that up to the priest's bishop. In this case, this priest's bishop inhibited her and acted in a pastoral way to give the priest time to discern her spiritual path. What would you rather have Bp. Wolf do?
As for comments condemning the actions of the priest, there were plenty of those on the Internet, just apparently not enough to satisfy you.
I hope you have a happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Katie:

Actually, I hit the "post" button the first time without checking my spelling and was subsequently embarrassed that I had mistyped Episcopalian. I thought you were moderating the comments and might catch the subsequent correction of the typo. Instead, it becomes fodder for personal attack.

Anyway, I hope you and your readers are enjoying a blessed Christmas season and have a happy new year.

Kindest regards, Patrick

Katie Sherrod said...

Patrick,
I'm sorry for misunderstanding how the duplicate posts happened. We're all a little tense around here, aren't we?
I'm sorry you believe there has not been a satisfactory response on the part of TEC to your concern about the priest who found herself drawn to Islam. I believe it was handled as it should have been, given our polity. I agree that Bp. Warner might have given a more thoughtful response, but he was not her bishop, even though she was functioning in his diocese -- Geraldine Wolf is.
Here's to better days for all of us.