The U.S. Episcopal Church met in convention in July 2015 to consider many weighty matters. Among other things, they elected a new presiding bishop.  On the anniversary of this occasion, it seems a good moment to look back “fondly” at the tenure of the former presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. She has been vilified by many, revered by a few, but unknown to just about no one. She was never one to shy away from controversy. She appeared keen not so much to “preside” over the entire church body, as to take up firmly for its leftist factions. A charitable position might be to suggest that she stepped into the helm of a church already in schism, and that she would have had little choice than to act as she did. Of course, she will be remembered for spending millions on aggressively suing departing congregations, and disciplining those bishops who lent any support to them.

But rather than comment further on these issues, we will recall some of her most famous (and infamous) public statements. Here they are,

Top Schori statements

1. On the shrinking of the church, and how it reflects better education and stewardship:

Q: How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?
A: “About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.”
Q: Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?
A: “No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.”
2006 New York Times Magazine Interview: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/magazine/19WWLN_Q4.html

2. On that evil apostle Paul, “depriving” a slave girl of her demon, er “gift”:

“Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God. She is quite right. She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves. But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does, maybe more so!”

Sermon preached in Curacao, May 2013: Episcopal Digital Network

3. On how how if it’s found in nature than it’s A-okay:

Well if one looks at the rest of creation, there are lots and lots of instances of same-sex behaviour in other species. They’re generally a small percentage of the whole, but they’re clearly evident. If they exist, an evolutionary theorist would say they have some kind of evolutionary benefit, or they don’t have a massive evolutionary detriment, and if we can affirm that creation is good, as Genesis would say, then I think we have to take those instances quite seriously.

Interview in 2006 with Stephen Crittenden: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/katharine-jefferts-schori/3323620#?utm_source=StandFirm&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=link

4. On how “Reason” trumps Bible in religious debates:

As Anglicans, we have always asserted that we listen to three primary sources of authority to scripture, to tradition, and to reason. The debate which has risen to the level of the Anglican primates has its roots in putting different emphasis on those three sources of authority. The Episcopal Church’s General Convention acted last summer out of a sense that reason and a broad reading of the Great Commandment required a different conclusion about matters of homosexuality than did strict adherence to seven passages in scripture which seem to speak against it. The other wing of the church says that those seven passages have ultimate authority, and therefore “we will obey the Bible.”

Article: http://www.nvdiocese.org/?utm_source=StandFirm&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=link

5. On how Mormons are Christians too:

Every religious tradition has its skeletons and its saints, and sometimes they are the same people. Paul is warning his hearers not to count themselves better than their ancestors, for they all depend on the same rootstock – a root that nourishes the olive tree or the grape vine we cling to as intimate connection to God as Creator of all. That root is why we are here, and it is also why the LDS church is here.
When General Convention shows up here just over 3 months from now, many of the volunteers and dispensers of hospitality will be our sisters and brothers from that tradition. Will we recognize their welcome as a product of the same root, or will we assume that they come from a different and unrecognizable species?

Source: Stand Firm blog: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/31775

6. On the “resurrected Christ”, where the body of Jesus apparently remained a corpse, but his ideas live on in his followers.

“What does that resurrection reality mean for the Body of Christ of which we are part? How does the risen Body of Christ – what we often call the church – differ from the crucified one?”

Sermon, Easter 2014: http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/04/07/presiding-bishops-easter-message-2014/?utm_source=StandFirm&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=link

7. On how the Bible used to “sanction” polygamy and we must redefine marriage:

“The theology of marriage has evolved over time, with biblical examples including polygamy, concubinage, and other forms of relationship no longer sanctioned in The Episcopal Church,” noted Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori. “We no longer expect that one partner promise to obey the other, that parents give away their children to be married, or that childbearing is the chief purpose of marriage. This task force is charged not only to take the pulse of our current theological understanding of the meaning of marriage, but to assist the faithful in conversation and discernment about marriage, in particular what the Church might hold up as “holy example” of the love between Christ and his Church.”

2013 Episcopal Church Website: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/presiding-bishop-president-house-deputies-announce-12-member-task-force-study-marriage

8. On “Mother Jesus”

Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation — and you and I are his children.

Episcopal Life: http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/26769_5280_ENG_HTM.htm

9. On the “Western Heresy” of personal salvation:

“…the great Western heresy — that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being.”

Reported in USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2009/07/68494086/1#.Vcf5JlVViko