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Jefferts Schori assumes leadership, calls for 'shalom'

	Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preaches in Washington National Cathedral during her service of installation Nov. 5. She was invested in a ceremony at the Cathedral the day before. -- Photo by the Washington National Cathedral

By the Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg
Episcopal News Service

The gates at the west doors of Washington National Cathedral opened shortly after 11 a.m. on Nov. 4, and Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stepped fully into her new ministry as the Episcopal Church’s 26th presiding bishop, calling all members of the church into deepened service and “shalom.”

As presiding bishop, Jefferts Schori, 52, becomes chief pastor to the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, which includes more than 2.4 million members in some 7,600 congregations in 110 dioceses and one convocation of churches in Europe, spanning 16 countries.

She will also join the Anglican Communion’s Primates Meeting, a body of principal bishops who oversee the Communion’s 38 member provinces, of which the Episcopal Church is one.

Jefferts Schori is the first woman in Anglicanism’s five-century history to serve in this capacity. (The Anglican presence in North America dates to April 26, 1607, the date of the first landing in Virginia.) She served as bishop of Nevada from 2001 until Oct. 25 of this year.

A former university professor, Jefferts Schori is an oceanographer and airplane pilot. She and her husband, Richard Miles Schori, a retired theoretical mathematician, have one daughter, Katharine Johanna Harris, 25, who is a first lieutenant and pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

Shalom unites people
During her homily, Jefferts Schori called the church to her vision of “shalom.” Shalom “doesn’t just mean that sort of peace that comes when we’re no longer at war,” she said.

“It is that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board, it’s a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed, it’s a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given, it’s a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another, where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God,” she said.

“Shalom means all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation.

“That vision of homegoing and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual yearnings is also the job assignment each one of us gets in baptism — go home, and while you’re at it, help to make a home for everyone else on earth,” she continued. “For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal.”

MDGs bring homecoming
Jefferts Schori called the church to live out “the vision of shalom embodied in the Millennium Development Goals that the church committed itself to at the 75th General Convention.

“That vision of abundant life is achievable in our own day, but only with the passionate commitment of each and every one of us,” she said to applause. “It is God’s vision of homecoming for all humanity.”

The Gospel for the service was Luke 4:14-21, in which Jesus reads from Isaiah 61, one of Jefferts Schori’s favorite passages: the prophet proclaims his mission “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor ...”

Jefferts Schori said that the scripture can be fulfilled in our hearing “in the will to make peace with one who disdains our theological position — for his has merit, too, as the fruit of faithfulness.

“In the courage to challenge our legislators to make poverty history, to fund AIDS work in Africa, the distribution of anti-malarial mosquito nets, and primary schools where all children are welcomed. In the will to look within our own hearts and confront the shadows that darken the dream that God has planted there.” Ending her sermon, Jefferts Schori said, “Shalom, chaverim, shalom, my friends, shalom.” The assembly responded with “Shalom.”

Symbols mark PB’s office
Early in the service Jefferts Schori received symbols of her ministry as presiding bishop, including a Gospel book, water as the symbol of baptism, and bread and wine as the symbol of the eucharistic life of the church.

She received the primatial staff, the symbol of her authority as presiding bishop, from the 25th presiding bishop, Frank Griswold.

At Griswold’s invitation to greet the new presiding bishop, the assembly erupted into loud applause and shouts that lasted nearly two minutes. Applause had accompanied Jefferts Schori up the Cathedral’s main aisle after her welcoming at the west doors. Even louder applause punctuated the service’s last hymn.

During the service Jefferts Schori led the assembly in renewing their baptismal covenant and she, along with 17 Episcopal Church bishops and 10 deacons, then moved through the cathedral sprinkling or asperging the assembly as a reminder of baptism.

Jefferts Schori officially took her seat in the presiding bishop’s chair at the Cathedral the next day during the main All Saints’ Day service.

An archived webcast of the investiture service is available on the Episcopal Church web site.

A DVD of the service also has been produced and is available for purchase at a cost of $26 each from Episcopal Books and Resources, (800) 903-5544.

Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for Episcopal News Service.