Katharine Jefferts Schori
Matching structure to mission
God does work in mysterious ways. There are deep parallels between how God’s mission to heal or reconcile the world has proceeded in centuries past and how it proceeds today. I had the great privilege to join the people of St. Philip’s Church, New York, in celebrating their 200th anniversary recently. This is the first […]
Sermon for All Saints in St. Mary’s, Flandreau, SD
Who and what did you see last night? Goblins and ghouls, super heroes and devils, cowpokes and shepherds? All those strange apparitions are actually good reminders of the saints we’re celebrating today. Hallowe’en is the night of preparation for All Hallows or All Saints Day. I was amazed to see a debate in the Argus […]
Sermon at St. Michael and All Angels in Mission, Kansas
Did somebody call you by name when you turned up this morning? If so, I imagine that it reminded you that you are a valued member of this community. If not, it probably felt like something was missing. Most of us go looking for places where we can be recognized as unique human beings, and […]
Sermon for Kansas Diocesan Convention
I think most Americans would say that the average Midwesterner is “salt of the earth.” It conveys the understanding that good common sense is present everywhere around here, that you aren’t going to be lured away by the excesses of some dubious enterprise or flagrantly seductive advertising. Yet Kansas is hardly average. It’s more like […]
Sermon for the 200th Anniversary of St. Philips, Harlem
I travel around all over this Church, and I rarely get to go home. My husband still lives in Nevada, and that’s where I vote, but I am seldom there. I did, however, get to spend 3 days there last week. It was immensely healing, in both a physical and spiritual sense. I got to […]
Sermon for Wyoming Diocesan Convention
Last weekend I was in Montana for their diocesan convention, and rather than go all the way back to New York, I spent a couple of days in Nevada. I even had a chance to go flying, but there was only a small window of decent weather. The big storm that has come through here […]
God is found in patient work of conversation
This forum long has been used as a way to disseminate information, but also to prod conversation. I'm going to do the latter this month. When I make diocesan visitations, I often remind people that the word “conversation” has its origins first in Latin and then in Middle English, where it means “to spend time […]
Sermon at Closing Eucharist of Montana Diocesan Convention
I was in Japan last week to join the Japanese church in celebrating its 150th anniversary. Missionaries from The Episcopal Church were responsible for beginning the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. In 1859, soon after Japan opened its borders, two priests and a physician went to Japan, from where theyâd been working in China. They couldnât work as ordinary missionaries, because the Japanese government didnât […]
JAPAN: Presiding Bishop preaches at Evening Prayer celebrating church's 150th anniversary
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached September 22 at a service of Evening Prayer, held in the Tucker Hall on the Rikkyo University campus in Tokyo, as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican Church in Japan. The full text of the Presiding Bishop's sermon follows. – – […]
Sermon for Clergy and Spouses in the Diocese of Long Island
The staff at the Church Center has spent much of the time since General Convention responding to the major budget cuts that happened there. It’s been a time of grief and pain as staff have departed and the reality that some programs will end or have to be done in radically different ways. But it’s […]