SALT LAKE CITY: Episcopal Presiding Bishop Admits Tensions in TEC Leadership
SALT LAKE CITY: Episcopal Presiding Bishop Admits Tensions in TEC Leadership
Times have brought enormous grief eliciting anger, denial. Struggles over inclusion are a symptom, she says
Executive Council
18 April 2012
Salt Lake City
Opening Remarks
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
I want to thank all of you for your service in this triennium. I know it has been a very difficult time for almost all, and I think it's important for us to reflect on the larger context in which our work has been done over the last three years.
When we began our work together in late 2009, we were just past a major budget cut that forced a public and painful reduction in church center staff. It was prompted by the economic crisis that began in 2008, which became far worse than anyone expected. But this economic crisis only hurried a reality that has been emerging for some time. The Episcopal Church, like many of the other well-established churches in the United States and in the west – and not just the western United States – , is declining in numbers, financial strength, and societal influence.
This church once was the established and state church in some of the American colonies, and it has continued to act as though it were established for a very long time. Well, my friends, that time is over, gone, and done with. I must note that we have never been established in the other 15 nations where we are present today, and those parts of this church have had to learn other ways of relating to the larger society – and American Episcopalians can learn from that experience. The laws under which the church exists in Latin America and Europe are an example – in some places, like Germany, this church is regulated like a sports club, rather than a church.
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