What Katharine Jefferts Schori Does Not Say

An Episcopalian reader, David Gustafson, writes about his church's newest leader,

I think no one on “Mere Comments” has commented yet on the sermons preached by the Episcopal Church’s new Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at her investiture and installation on November 4 and 5, 2006. Maybe they're not worth much comment. They do not include predictably controversial statements (such as her reference to "Mother Jesus" at General Convention 2006) but the sermons are more remarkable for what they do not say:

Bishop Schori’s sermons make no mention of the cross, nor of Jesus' death, nor of His rising again. Neither sermon uses the word "Gospel" (or the phrase "good news"). Neither sermon mentions Father, Son, or Holy Spirit (though the word "Spirit" does appear.) Jesus is not called Lord in either sermon; and somehow in her November 5 All Saints’ Day sermon, she managed to avoid saying “Christ” or “Christian” altogether.

The sermons make no mention sin, nor of hell or judgment. The November 5 sermon does not use the word "salvation" at all, and the November 4 sermon uses it only once, where it is equated with "our [the Episcopal Church's] health as a body"; and that usage is typical of the entire sermon: It employs some conventional Christian vocabulary, but it does so only in order to address this-worldly concerns that the Church shares with secular social welfare agencies.

the rest at Mere Comments

Commentary on Schori's "Mother Jesus" Sermon