Christmas message from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori concerning proposed bill in Uganda

Reflecting the light

How do we encounter the poor? Are they simply the recipients of our unwanted clothing or our spare change, forgotten until we are confronted by a Salvation Army bell-ringer or a donation-collection truck? Jesus called the poor blessed because they more readily recognize and receive the kingdom of heaven. People who are the most vulnerable […]

The Presiding Bishop’s Statement on World AIDS Day 2009

December 1 each year is World AIDS Day, an occasion both to remember the 25 million beloved children of God who have lost their lives to the pandemic over the past three decades, and to rededicate ourselves to building a future without AIDS.  This year, new challenges both at home and abroad remind us again of […]

Sermon for the Diocesan Convention of Central New York

I met our new President the day after he was inaugurated. There was a big prayer service at the National Cathedral, with a whole raft of religious leaders. Before the service, each of us had about 20 seconds for a picture with the Obamas and the Bidens. When President Obama saw my staff (the stick […]

Sermon at Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento

I remember being in church many years ago, when our daughter was about five years old. She was sitting a couple of pews in front of us, with our friend Bruce and his son who was about the same age as our daughter. When it came time for the Lord’s Prayer, Bruce challenged the two […]

Sermon at Northern California's Diocesan Convention in Redding, CA

Have you ever thought about what it would like to be a plant? Consider one of those great redwoods growing just over the mountains west of us. How do they get to be nearly 400 feet tall? The sheer effort that’s required to pump water from the roots up to the top of a tree […]

Sermon at Moravian Seminary – Jesus Christ as Chief Elder

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 23-24; Psalm 8; Hebrews 4:14-16; John 10:1-10 Greetings from around TEC, and from our covenant partners – Mexico, Brazil, Central America, Philippines, and Liberia. We work with many partners around the world, and we look forward to the opportunities of partnership with the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Unitas Fratrum. One of […]

Presiding Bishop's Sermon at St. Paul's Church in Atlanta, GA

A story like Ruth and Naomi’s could probably only be made into a movie if it carried an X rating. We miss a lot of the innuendo in translation, but basically, Naomi is out to procure a husband for her widowed daughter-in-law. That’s the only way either one of them is going to survive economically. […]

Sermon for the Atlanta Annual Council

We’re celebrating the feast of William Temple today, and the first suggestion of something unusual is that this isn’t the date he died; it’s the date he was baptized. Maybe that’s a hint that his witness has more to do with incarnation than death and resurrection. Temple was just three weeks old when he was […]