As part of her grand tour of Minnesota, Presiding Bishop Schori spent a couple of hours with Minnesota clergy this afternoon. She began with her standard 5-minute silent reflection on the phrase, "You are my beloved. In you I am well pleased," which she believes God says about each of us. "Yes, we screw up," Schori quickly appended, "but we are still the beloved and God is still well-pleased with us."
After asking people to share what they experienced in the five minutes of silence, the PB opened the floor for questions. Even the highly sympathetic audience of Minnesota's liberal clergy was not exactly fighting to be recognized. I thought I would help things along. I didn't want to ask any of the hardball questions that she has already been asked in places like South Carolina, and for which she has already worked out pat answers. So I got a little creative: "What is your personal understanding of the end times?"
I believe I did succeed in asking a question she had never thought about before. She stammered a bit, talked about the questions concerning Hell that the Breck School students had asked earlier in the day. After a few more stumbles, she said that her concern with thinking about the end times was that it took energy away from the present. (Yes, that's the ticket!) Gathering momentum, she rephrased her answer. "My observation is that when people focus on the eschaton, they miss the opportunities of the present moment. I have a lot of work to do before Jesus comes again." Yes, she does, indeed, probably more and of a different sort than she'll ever know. No matter how we may wish she went about her work with a little more fear and trembling, nobody could ever accuse her of not thinking tolerably well on her feet.
6 comments:
Great question! The end may be nearer than she thinks.
Thank you, Pewster!
Like Obama today warning about the inflation ahead (duh--ya think--and whose porkulus package exacerbated it?) Schori will probably be surprised and have no idea about her role in it.
So what did she say about the election of a new Minnesota Bishop? see May 4 blog
Dear Anon,
She didn't get into that sticky wicket with this particular crowd. She was scheduled to spend significant time with the Search Committee separately, and all their work is officially hush hush. When she asked what people were excited about in the Diocese, someone mentioned the election of a new Bishop, but oops--that came out as critical of the sitting Bishop, so she segued into praise for Bishop Jelinek, whom she described as a "great leader, mentor, and example." I'll be writing more about her visit next week. She made several remarks that do warrant comment.
BTW, Anon, if you don't feel comfortable revealing your true name, how about coming up with a distinctive pseudonym so that our conversations can be a bit sorted out? Thanks, in any case, for your time.
Think she influenced your Standing Cmte. to vote "YES" for the Buddhist-leaning Bishop appointee in No. Mich? Or were they gonna go that way just the same?
Good question. Lame answer. Way to go, Anglikitty+.
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