Presiding Bishop Tours San Diego
by Hannah Miller April 6, 2008
mp3 audio of Good Sam talk "A Reasoned Faith"
Sermon text, St. Paul's Cathedral, April 5, 2008
Sermon text, St. James by-the-Sea, April 6, 2008
“I met Bishop Katharine and I’m ready to change the world.” Such was the saying written on a miniature globe given to children as they huddled around Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The Presiding Bishop gave a short lesson to children at St. James, La Jolla on Sunday, April 6. She leaned down and encouraged them to share God’s love with their neighbors, saying “that will change the world.”
Bishop Katharine’s sermon at St. James was the finale of a three-day trip to the diocese of San Diego, April 4 – 6. As the first female Presiding Bishop, Jefferts Schori serves as chief pastor to the Church’s 2.4 million members in 16 countries and 110 dioceses. Her term lasts nine years; this visit is, very likely, the only one she will make to this diocese.
Through public appearances and tours of the work and ministries of local Episcopalians, the Presiding Bishop met and spoke to hundreds of clergy and lay people.
Ministry Site Visits
Jefferts Schori, her husband, Dr. Richard Schori, Canon Robert Williams, Communications Director and Miguel Escobar, Communications Assistant, piled into a van and traveled along the Pacific coast to visit three ministries of local Episcopalians.
The first stop was at Episcopal Community Service’s Downtown Safe Haven, a transitional home for chronically homeless people who suffer from severe mental illnesses. A cool breeze and warm sunshine filled the courtyard where residents and staff shared their lives with the Presiding Bishop.
When asked about the transitional home, Jefferts Schori said, “these people are learning to say, ‘Yes, I want to give back to community, to change and enter community as a partner.’”
Bishop Mathes beamed with pride as the Presiding Bishop moved about the campus, talking with residents. He noted that, “this is a great moment for Safe Haven to tell resurrection stories. New life – that’s what this is about.”
A client in her quiet, shy way related the importance of Safe Haven: “This place has been a Godsend. To get such great help in the city is a blessing for me.”
The tour continued at the second stop: Episcopal Community Service’s La Escualita Head Start in National City. The program is designed to promote social and educational development in children and to assist families whose incomes fall below the national poverty level. Children receive thorough dental and physical examinations, immunizations and nutritious, hot meals every day. Jefferts Schori spent time talking with the teachers and children.
She received a brief history lesson about St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, where the Head Start program is located. Through short presentations inside the century-old sanctuary that was originally a ship, she learned about Dorcas House, a Tijuana foster home, and Recover San Diego, an inter-denominational fire relief effort formed in response to the 2007 wildfires.
The Learning Center in North Park was the final destination on the tour. A tutoring center for Sudanese refugee children, the center provides help with schoolwork, hearty meals and the love and support of a generous mother-figure, Molly Moores, who started the tutoring program. Moores received the Channel 10News Leadership Award last year and is held in the highest esteem by the children, grateful parents and the many volunteers. Siama Agory arrived in San Diego in 2000 and is a mother of a student who comes regularly to The Learning Center. When asked about Moores, she held up her arm and said, “We may be different colors, but we are one blood.”
Bishop Jefferts Schori listened as the children discussed school and their favorite subjects – math, poetry, art. Their eyes lit up when they talked about cleaning up after the fires at Camp Stevens. She looked at their artwork and photos of trips they’d taken to museums and ballgames. She got on her knees to see them more closely and to hear their soft voices. Just before she left, she told the children, “I’m very honored to be here and to meet each of you. You are going to be significant leaders as poets, artists, mathematicians and more.”
The Tutoring Center impressed Bishop Jefferts Schori. “They’re very serious children—very focused on schoolwork. That’s been the experience of every immigrant population – they know that education is vital. Here is Molly Moores leading the way with creativity and passion. They are gifted children finding their ways.”
The tour gave Bishop Jefferts Schori a good idea of the work in which San Diego Episcopalians engage. At the day’s end she commended the diocese on its work, connecting it to just one of the important tenets of our faith: education.
“The Episcopal Church has always valued education and considered it central to our faith. ECS, and other ministries, are doing a great job of focusing on education from the earliest opportunity, from the tutoring programs for children to the reeducation of residents of downtown Safe Haven.”
Public Address
Bishop Jefferts Schori received a standing ovation from over 600 people when she walked through the door of Good Samaritan Episcopal Church on Saturday afternoon. She spoke about her spiritual journey at an event called “A Reasoned Faith.” People gathered from the farthest reaches of the diocese, including Palm Springs and Yuma, Arizona, to hear her inspiring journey of faith. She spoke about her childhood and knowing from age ten that she wanted to be a scientist. Her sense of wonder about life, and curiosity informed by heady reading material, such as Being and Time by Martin Heidegger, shaped her personality.
She spoke about her transition from oceanography to ordained ministry. “There was a lot of grief associated with the realization that I couldn’t continue in the direction that I’d spent the better part of twenty years preparing for, but at some point I recognized that it wasn’t a waste. That preparation could still be used in another field. I am still fishing and I am still working in the depths.”
She described the etymology of the words, shedding new light on tired topics. “Science is a word that means knowing….Faith and religion ask questions about meaning. Science asks questions about mechanism and connection. They can be essential important partners in the human endeavor of knowing. Einstein said, ‘Religion with science is blind; science without faith limps.’” She spoke about the importance of one informing the other and the enormities that result when they don’t.
In relating faith to science, she likened the Franciscian view of ministry to “show up, pay attention, tell the truth and leave the results to God,” saying “that’s another spin on the scientific method.”
Asked about the literal story of Easter and the Resurrection, Bishop Jefferts Schori said, “I think Easter is most profoundly about meaning, not mechanism.”
When she shared a favorite quote, “Jesus died to take away your sins; not your mind,” the applause and cheers were deafening.
Her humility revealed itself in many moments throughout her visit, but especially when she said, “I was as surprised as anybody else when I was elected.”
The calm, intelligent way she handled the questions touched the audience. “She was eloquent and answered every question without becoming flustered,” said Kate Myler, a 25-year-old who attended the event with a friend.
Sunday Breakfast and Service by-the-Sea
During her Sunday sermon at St. James in La Jolla, Bishop Jefferts Schori brought greetings from Episcopalians around the world, as the Episcopal Church encompasses more than the United States, including Honduras and Haiti, the largest Episcopal diocese in the world with 120,000.
The Rev. Randal Gardner, the rector of St. James, La Jolla, summed up the sentiment of many when he thanked her for bringing the message of the Church with “hopeful serenity and sensible accommodation.”
One line in the anthem contained the Presiding Bishop’s message about turmoil in the Church, “We make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own.”
Many commented on the hope she inspires in their lives. “She gives me hope for the Church,” said the Rev. Canon Lee Teed, retired sub-dean at St. Paul’s Cathedral. “She carries the presence of God so graciously. I’ve truly never met someone so centered and peaceful in the midst of utter chaos at the height of power.”
Before the 10 o’clock Eucharist, St. James hosted a beautiful breakfast and dialogue with the Presiding Bishop. During the question-and-answer period, Bishop Katharine spent time sharing with people about the work she does on a global level, and about the good message of the Church.
“Millennium Development Goals are about developing nations overseas; they’re not about work in the United States. Ten of our dioceses are overseas and some are in nations targeted by MDG work,” said Bishop Katharine.
When asked about conflict in the church, she said thoughtfully, “I’m convinced when we focus on the needs of our neighbors and not our own self interest, we have the potential to build not only bridges, but a fully functioning Christian community. It’s when we get more interested in our neighbors and their suffering than in our own peeves that we begin to change the world and the tenor of relationships within this church.”
The Presiding Bishop’s sermon drew upon her recent trip to Gaza where she saw Muslims and Christians working together to provide welcome areas to one another. She spoke about immigrants, aliens and refugees, the significance of which was not lost on San Diegans who live embroiled in border issues.
“We are aliens,” said Jefferts Schori. “We’re the ones living outside of God’s dream, the heavenly city; we’re the ones waiting outside the gate, eager to build a new city where all will be citizens of the household of God. In some real sense, none of us gets to be a citizen there until we all are.”
“In my short time here in the diocese, I’ve seen lots of examples of how this part of the church is working to give aliens a home: the resettled refugees from Sudan and Burma who are being tutored after school; the homeless mentally ill who are getting help to stabilize their lives and living arrangements; the children of immigrants who are learning social skills and nutrition along with their alphabet and numbers, skills they’re going to need to grow up and be full members of this community.”
Bishop Jefferts Schori’s preaching was concise, thought-provoking and ended with a haunting question: “The next time we meet an alien, will we recognize Jesus in our midst?”
Bishop Jefferts Schori and her entourage left immediately following the service. After announcements, Bishop Mathes bid Bishop Jefferts Schori farewell, “I’m grateful for your spirit, leadership, courage, for you. We have been richly blessed; you have empowered us with your presence. We send you with our blessings and our whole support.”
Crowds outside the church milled around for another hour, basking in the glow of the sunshine and in the culmination of Bishop Jefferts Schori ’s visit. Her insightful message and the way she celebrated the Eucharist made an impression on those who attended.
A parishioner at St. Paul’s Cathedral said it this way: “It seems like she’s living her message, not just preaching it.”