Updated Sunday morning
The service of investiture of the new presiding bishop takes place today, Saturday, in the Washington Cathedral.
Further details on the cathedral website here.
Printed order of service here as a PDF file.
The service will be broadcast on the web starting at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Go here to watch or listen.
Update Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s investiture sermon.
Initial press coverage
Rachel Zoll Associated Press Female Bishop Takes Top Episcopal Office and a later version of this Episcopalians Install Female Leader.
Pictures here, and here.
ENS now has lots and lots of pictures, starting here.
ENS also has a full report of the service in Amid prayer and ‘shalom,’ Katharine Jefferts Schori invested as Episcopal Church’s 26th Presiding Bishop by Mary Frances Schjonberg and in International guests bring global context to Jefferts Schori’s investiture by Matthew Davies. And also in Thousands line up outside Cathedral poised to observe history in the making by Daphne Mack.
The BBC has Woman bishop takes over Church.
Update Sunday morning
Washington Post Alan Cooperman Female Bishop Takes Helm of Episcopal Church
New York Times Neela Banarjee A Woman Is Installed as Top Episcopal Bishop
Los Angeles Times Louis Sahagun First woman takes helm of Episcopal Church
Washington Times Julia Duin The bishop presiding is a woman
The text of the greeting from Rowan Williams:
Saturday 4th November 2006
‘I am happy to send my prayers and best wishes to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on the historic occasion of her inauguration as Presiding Bishop. She will take on this responsibility in the most challenging of times, but she will be supported by the good will and prayers of very many in the USA and around the world as she strives to lead faithfully, honestly and collaboratively. I pray that she will daily know the love and mercy of God in Jesus Christ as the foundation of all she does, so that this reality will radiate from her ministry and her witness.’
+Rowan CANTUAR:
The PB’s investiture was wonderful ! So moving. What a fine Church it is. What a wonderful deeply encouraging message she gave and the liturgy gave. –and her lovely, vibrant smile. All the folks hugging her at the end and some asking her to bless them. Somehow, it seemed to move me even more than Gene Robinson’s consecration, and I think as a woman, perhaps she represents something special and new in the Church, as Primate, –and as a straight woman her acceptance of us all, and rainbow chasuble and Spanish Blessing and all the wonderful young (and ole) dancersm… Read more »
It was a wonderful service. I earnestly hope and pray she can bring hope and reconciliation to those parts of our church who are hurt and divided.
BIG HEADLINES for a very BIG DAY!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/04/woman.bishop.ap/index.html
Thanks be to God the challenge “ALL are WELCOMED to the NOT YETNESS of mankind”* is no longer daunting and wishful thinking.
*Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Primate
I was blessed to be there. I was also there nine years ago for ++Frank’s service. There was joy and enthusiasm. There was a lot of applause.
Today there was something electric. There was applause – and also whistling and stomping! It was joyful and Spirit filled.
++Katharine has that elusive quality = gravitas.
TBTG!
Her investure sermon was beautiful, so beautiful that I am archiving a hyperlink for future reference. A church that can embrace this vision is a church to be proud of. May God’s glory shine throughout all its parishioners. May they bring honour to God’s name, which attempting this vision would surely do.
The image of ++Katharine banging on the cathedral door was worth the price of admission! (Imago-Dei-made-female comin’ atcha Ol’ Boys—get out of the way! ;-p)
A splendid, splendid day. Praise Christ! 😀
A quite historic event.
The Archbishop sends warms greetings.
“With My Love and blessing, Rowan”
http://admiralofmorality.blogspot.com
So THAT’s where our diocesan was. (Makes a change from him jumping out of aircraft and flying with the Red Arrows….)
Only caught part of the liturgy, but I’m glad the diocese of Lincoln was there in the person of +John. Gives me a peculiar sense of hope in all the recent nonsense.
Simon, many thanks for the coverage you provide for the Anglican world. I would like to point out, however, that Saturday’s liturgy was the “Investiture” and Sunday’s liturgy was the “Installation”. This is a minor point in a much more important story, but to this American it is strangely like the oft repeated misuse of the term “appointment” for the “election” of bishops in The Episcopal Church.
Dear chauvinist:
I am sorry that my adding of an *Update* legend has caused confusion. This article was written on Saturday, refers to Saturday’s events and makes no mention of the following day’s events. I will amend the wording to avoid confusion.
Bp. Schori’s investiture sermon makes no mention of the cross, nor of Jesus’ death, nor of His rising again. The sermon does not use the word “Gospel” (or the phrase “good news”), and does not include the word “faith” or “belief” or “trust.” There is nothing of the miraculous or the supernatural in the sermon. It does not mention “Father,” “Son,” or “Holy Spirit.” (The word “spirit” does appear twice.) Jesus is not called “Lord” (and the only use of the word “Lord” is in a quotation of Augustine). Of course, the sermon makes no mention of “hell” (or “judgment,”… Read more »
DGus asked What is Bishop Schori’s religion? Mainstream Christian, with a clear grounding in John’s Gospel and the Parables from the look of your comments. Sorry that she didn’t play the right tune for you to dance to, but I do get depressed by those who think that banging a particular type of Gospel drum is the only way to evangelise. Remember that if she was talking to Christians, the eschatological/gospel/divine is assumed, and your post does rather come across as a grumpy bit of nit-picking. We were talking over port & blue cheese last night with a couple of… Read more »
Katherine’s message reduced — no, f i l l e d me with tears and joy. And the whole Saturday worship gave me hope and nourishment it reminded of me of a Catholic Charismatic prayer group to which I once belonged crossed with Cathedral Liturgy –pontifical without the swagger, but with the bridge !…. for me her were are a bridge…… I was so glad to be spared the tired ole cliches beloved of my Gospel Hall as a youth and so empty of powerand also the tired ole anglo-catholic cliches and posing, also stony in my mouth, rather than… Read more »
Mr Rowett – you talk about “a particular type of Gospel” I am not sure what you mean – there is only one gospel and faithful men like St Paul were pretty hard on those who invented new ones to appeal to their cultures, as you know DGus is right – the speech (rather than sermon) could have been given by Mahatma Ghandi – but then this lady thinks his way was an equally valid alternative route up the mountain….ironically, that is part of the teaching the Mahatma followed even if it is not in line with John 14:6 or… Read more »
And David, if she is “Mainstream Christian” – about 70m Anglicans are therefore not?
DGus and NP, For the love of God! We really are in two different religions! I read her sermon, it is full of the hope of God’s transformative love, of all Creation made new in the Incarnation: ie the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is full of the Kingdom of God which is all around us if we can but see it, the Kingdom of which we are all citizens by our baptism, and which it is the Church’s call to make real in this world. It is Creation groaning for perfection in Christ. This is traditional Catholic… Read more »
NP:
Since Paul’s been dragged into the discussion, didn’t he use different guises for the one Gospel, becoming a Greek to Greeks and a Jew to Jews?
Sometimes I do think that the ConsEv gospel is a bit like the music capabilities of a ZX Spectrum: monophonic and monaural. But, of course, that is so easy to dress up as ‘The True Gospel, no? Let others rejoice in surround sound, even if you’re hooked on beeps and burps.
{sigh}
It seems the usual suspects REFUSE to come to the wedding banquet, even though they were emphatically invited.
If ++KJS would then throw open to the doors to all who *would* come, well, she’s only following Our Lord! 😀
[I shudder to think of the *Pharisaism* that defines its religion (NOT faith) by what “this lady” “didn’t mention” in her “speech”. Lord have mercy!]
Praise Christ for his faithful servant ++Katharine! God bless TEC! 😀
Surely each can only search her or his heart.
Making our own ‘prilgrimage’ if you like, making our own precious discoveries for ourselves.
We all turn out different, dont we ? Not as statistics, surely, or norms…..
I do think some people have gone rather overboard about the sermon the new +Katherine preached – intersting thoguh it was. Most reactions seem to confirm previously held hopes/positions. I wonder how DGus thinks her words compare to the likes of S. Catherine of Siena, or St. Teresa of Avila? What heroines of the faith they were, and in a different league (to the women AND men of today)!!
Ford – are you joking? You say, “the more I read, the more I realize that, whatever the mistakes of the so-called “liberals” they at least try to follow the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, taught by the Apostles and preserved and passed on by the Fathers” Sadly, you are talking about a group which includes some who do not even believe the creeds, others who believe the creeds but do not accept the discpiline on our lives which is given in the Bible (by God, entirely for our own good!) and others (like KJS) that… Read more »
I quite like John 14:2 & 10:16. Then Mark 9:39-40 is quite inspiring ““Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”
Cheryl – that argument does not work at all if you take the passages in context. The whole bible is consistent in showing the holiness of God and his total rejection of sin. He never says it is ok to sin.
Just see Romans 6 to see how grace cannot be cheapened to allow sinning.
Sure, we all still sin (Rom 7) – the point is not to justify it but to struggle against it.
NP, I realize that, among the “liberals”, there are those whose beliefs I find, frankly, odd. I don’t understand, for instance, how someone can claim to be a Christian priest, and still deny the Resurrection, and that’s only the tip of it. But such people are also, as far as I can see, a small, and odd, minority. Most of the “liberals” I have talked to are very concerned that they know patristic teaching, that they know the Tradition, and beliefs like the Virgin Birth, the perpetual virginity of Mary, the Resurrection, are important to them. My point was that,… Read more »
DGus sent me back to one of my favorite descriptions of a sermon – perhaps more to his liking. It occurs in a dream that Lockwood has: …we were journeying to hear the famous Jabez Branderham preach, from the text — Seventy Times Seven; and either Joseph, the preacher, or I had committed the “First of the Seventy-First,” and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated. We came to the chapel where Jabez had a full and attentive congregation; and he preached — good God! what a sermon; divided into FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY parts, each fully equal to an… Read more »
I meant to identify the source of the terrifying sermon description. It is of course from “Wuthering Heights.” In “Moby Dick” I remember a striking sermon that was not, as here, a dream.
What amuses me about the whole discussion is that it proves that in some instances conservative evangelicals — and yes, catholics — are just too polemical for their own good.
And yet, given that some practitioners of other faiths are not too keen on listening to us Christians, any “no salvation outside Christ” statement may sound more reasonable these days than some PC statement about how all religions are the same. Not that I am saying that Schori’s statements fall into that category. I’ve read worse.
Ford – sorry but evangelicalism is closer to 2000 yrs old – we are just seeking to keep to the intended meaning of the words of God as handed down to us
NP, Please, read some church history. Read Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Church for an eastern perspective. It makes a good start. Read Karen Armstrong’s A History of God, though I wouldn’t recommend it for you as an Evangelical till you’ve had your eyes opened a bit. As to “seeking to keep to the intended meaning of the words of God handed down to us”, that is insulting and shows exactly what I have been saying is the meaning of the word ‘orthodox’. “We’re right because we live by the rules, and if you don’t agree with how we say the… Read more »
Ford – you completely misunderstand me – I believe in salvation by faith in Christ, through grace – it ain’t about rules but as Romans 6 teaches so clearly, we have no license to allow sin……
my problem is with ordained people who teach something very different – just read the KJS Time interview and you will see what I mean.
NP, again I refer you to the article Jefferts Schori and theology.
Thanks Simon – but I don’t think that article can convince me that KJS does not hold pluralist views and I am afraid I think those views are perfectly consistent with hinduism but not with the words of Jesus
NP,
I can’t seem to find that interview online. Can you point me to it?
Sorry Ford – I just saw the magazine. KJS is on record in lots of places being very liberal…. I honestly don’t understand how someone like you can think we ought to have unity with people who believe such very different things to you – since you have said you say the creeds with full belief in them.
the weakness in the Anglican church is that it thinks there is value is saying both black and white are the same colour and so, it convinces very few that it knows what it is talking about
KJS doesn’t believe the Creeds? Just because she’s liberal doesn’t mean she doesn’t believe the Creeds. Where does she refute any of the points of the Creed? As to having unity with those who don’t believe as I do, I’m willing to have unity with you, am I not?