The Times: "Our Mother Jesus . . . a sermon by US
church's new head"
Source: The Times (London)
By Ruth Gledhill and James Bone
June 22, 2006
 
THE Episcopal Church in America descended into chaos
last night after leading bishops on both the liberal
and conservative wings dissassociated themselves from
a last-gasp effort to avert a schism with the
worldwide Anglican Communion. 
 
Just hours after its newly elected woman head preached
a sermon in praise of “our mother Jesus”, the
Episcopal Church agreed to “exercise restraint” in
appointing any more gay bishops after a tense day of
debate and argument.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams,
welcomed the resolution with gratitude and what
appeared to be relief, but he also made clear his
reservations.
He welcomed the “exceptional seriousness” with which
the Episcopal Church had treated the calls for it to
repent and to impose moratoriums on same-sex blessings
and the consecration of any more gay bishops. He said
that actions by bishops and laity of the Episcopal
Church yesterday showed “how strong is their concern
to seek reconciliation and conversation with the rest
of the Communion.”
But he continued: “It is not yet clear how far the
resolutions passed this week and today represent the
adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals
set out in the Windsor report. The wider Communion
will therefore need to reflect carefully on the
significance of what has been decided before we
respond more fully.”
But this fragile consensus was immediately shattered
by leading bishops on both sides.
Thirty liberal bishops issued a statement of dissent,
saying that they could not abide by the new
resolution. Bishop John Chane of Washington, a
prominent church liberal who officiates at the
National Cathedral in American capital, said that he
would not agree to block the ordination of any gay
bishop. “I will defy the resolution by consenting
after prayer and careful consideration to any person
duly elected by a diocese in this church,” he said.
On the other side, five conservative bishops accused
the General Convention of “misleading the rest of the
Communion by giving a false perception that they
intend actually to comply with the recommendations of
the Windsor Report”. They continued: “We therefore
disassociate ourselves from those acts of this
Convention that do not fully comply with the Windsor
Report.”
They said that they repudiated the actions of the
convention and committed themselves to providing
pastoral care to worshippers and parishes on the
orthodox wing, so placing themselves also in potential
breach of Windsor because this would entail crossing
diocesan and parochial boundaries.
The resolution was agreed after panicked bishops
summoned the rare joint session of the whole Church at
its three-yearly convention. The session was held the
day after the 800-strong House of Deputies
resoundingly rejected the Anglican hierarchy’s demand
for a moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops.
Delegates, many wearing pink “It’s a girl” badges in
celebration of the Right Rev Katharine Schori’s
election as the new presiding bishop, were warned by
the current primate of the Episcopal Church, Frank
Griswold, that if they did not at least make an
attempt to comply with demands for a moratorium on the
consecration of any more gay bishops, they would risk
exclusion from key bodies of the Anglican Church.
A proposal put forward by Bishop Griswold committing
the Church to “exercise restraint by not consenting to
the consecration of any candidate for the episcopate
whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider
Church and will lead to further strains” sailed
through the 300-member House of Bishops on a show of
hands and was approved 75-34 by clergy delegations and
72-32 by lay delegations in the House of Deputies.
Earlier, at the morning Eucharist at the convention in
Columbus, Ohio, Dr Schori signalled her feminist
credentials in a sermon that drew on the writings of
the 14th-century Julian of Norwich. She said: “Mother
Jesus gives birth to a new creation — and you and I
are His children. If we’re going to keep on growing
into Christ images for the world around us, we’re
going to have to give up fear.”
Liberals in Britain and America defended her sermon as
being in a long tradition of writings by women
theologians that use the metaphor of Jesus as mother.
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