life between the pages

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

dialogue across a chasm

Statement from Bishop Mark Lawrence in response to the recent ENS article on the Presiding Bishop's visit to South Carolina

I have read the recent article from the ENS regarding the Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori’s visit to the Diocese of South Carolina. It was a gracious and accurate description of much of our time together. Indeed, there was a warm hospitality which we were most intentional in cultivating through our prayers and our hearts. What the article failed to convey, however, is the depth of the theological chasm that lies between many of us in South Carolina (and others within the church for that matter) and the trajectory of so much of the leadership of The Episcopal Church. To explore these cavernous depths is indeed the great work that lies before anyone in leadership today. Along with showing hospitality and witnessing to God’s work among us, the earnest exploring of this chasm was and remains one of our chief objectives.

--The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence

Audio Recordings of the Presiding Bishop's Visit to the Diocese of South Carolina

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the euphemism, "theological chasm". The patriarchal foundations of the early Christian church have long since been exposed as exclusionary. IS that what Jesus had in mind? Probably not, to judge from his reliance on and devotion to Mary Magdalene. The Church fathers purpetrated a coverup to protect their own chauvinist interests. NO surprise there. It has always been thus.

But now comes the good Bishop who happens to be female and who happens to support gay clergy... and, oh, along comes Hillary (forgive my mixing politics and religion, as if all Churches haven't done that from day one). What are we to do? Oh my.

Bill

susannah eanes said...

i'm just disappointed that the generation that produced both of these women seems to think that by acting like men, they'll somehow better the situation of women.

i'll be happy when we get past that point, and look forward to the day when women are accepted just for being themselves.

but that'll probably be a generation that comes after mine, unfortunately.