Friday, February 09, 2007

Presiding Bishop, Primate and "Apostle to the Unchurched"

Jim Naughton over at Daily Episcopalian offered a new title to +Katharine Jefferts Schori's credentials "apostle to the unchurched" in his post earlier today Creating Her Own Good Press:

"One of the things I have admired about Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is her willingness to go out and meet people in public forums [like photo above at the reception following the EUC Eucharist] and to answer questions directly and clearly, even though the circumstances of the moment might suggest that she should withdraw from the public eye.

The most recent example of her openness comes via the media of the Research Triangle in North Carolina where she recently spoke at the meeting of the Episcopal Urban Caucus. Have a look at this story which ran in the Raleigh paper and one or two others. And then watch this television report abut Bishop Jefferts Schori honoring the first black woman priest in North Carolina.

It occurs to me that while many of us are wringing our hands about being unable to egt good news about the Episcopal Church into the press, Bishop Jefferts Schori is accomplishing that almost singlehandedly in just about every media market she visits. We have not had this effective an apostle to the unchurched in a long time."

Amen, Jim. And may others go and do likewise!

(Photo credit: Me)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apostle to the unchurched? My goodness, she has never been productive in bringing the unchurched into the church, unless I am missing something. She's never been part of a significantly growing church or diocese. This was brought up before. She might hang out with the unchurched but that's a heck of a lot different than being an APOSTLE.

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

apos·tle
Pronunciation: \ə-ˈpä-səl\
Function: noun

1: one sent on a mission

[From Merriam Webster online dictionary]

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

[From Merriam Webster online dictionary]

apos·tle
Function: noun

1: one sent on a mission

Given the Good News she's been given to proclaim and the unchurched yearning to hear it and the fabuolus way she's going about proclaiming it I'd say she has certainly been "sent on a mission" and I'd say that makes her an apostle.