Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Katharine Jefferts Schori•Elected the 26th Presiding Bishop on June 18, 2006

•Consecrated at the National Cathedral in Washington DC on November 4, 2006

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Snapshot of the Snapshot of the Episcopal ChurchEpiscopal Church

• Founded: 1789 in Philadelphia

• Headquarters: New York

• Creed: Book of Common Prayer

•Organization: members, deacons, priests, bishops

Levels (parish, diocese, province, the General Convention – elects the Presiding Bishop)

Organization of the Organization of the Episcopal ChurchEpiscopal Church

The General ConventionPresiding

Bishop

PP P

P

P P

Diocese

PP P

P

P P

Diocese

PP P

P

P P

Diocese

Organization of the Organization of the Church of ChristChurch of Christ

Christ

(Head)

Bishops

Deacons

Saints

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Question: What will be your focus as head of the U.S. church?

“Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus.”

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Question: The issue of gay bishops...Is now the time to elect another gay bishop?

“…these decisions were made because we believe that's where the Gospel has been calling us. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has come to a reasonable conclusion and consensus that gay and lesbian Christians are full members of this church and that our ministry to and with gay and lesbian

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Question: The issue of gay bishops...Is now the time to elect another gay bishop?

Christians should be part of the fullness of our life.”

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Question: What is your view on intelligent design?

“I firmly believe that evolution ought to be taught in the schools as the best witness of what modern science has taught us. To try to read the Bible literalistically about such issues disinvites us from using the best of recent scholarship.”

Interview With Head of the Episcopal Church

Question: Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?

“We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”