Year In Review: ECUSA's Incoming Leader: Homosexuality Not a Choice, Jesus Not the Only Way
December 21, 2006

(AgapePress) - - She says she doesn't consider Jesus Christ to be the only way to God. She says she believes God makes some people "gay." And she's soon to be the leader of a mainline Protestant denomination in America.

In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul writes that "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9, NIV). But in an interview this week with Associated Press, Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori -- who is to be installed on Saturday as the first female presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA -- stated that Christians should not say that Jesus is the only way to God. "If we insist we know the one way to God," she said, "we've put God in a very small box."

In John 14:6, Jesus -- in responding to a question posed by the disciple Thomas -- said: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." But Jefferts-Schori says she disagrees with the idea that salvation comes only through trusting in Jesus Christ. "It's this sense that one person can have the fullness of truth in him or herself, rather than understanding that truth is -- like God -- more than any one person can encompass," stated the soon-to-be ECUSA leader.

Jefferts-Schori says she views salvation as the healing of all Creation through holy living. "I understand salvation as being about the healing of the whole creation. Your part and my part in that is about holy living," she offered. "As Christians we understand [salvation] as relationship with God in Jesus, but that does not mean that we're expected to judge other people's own commitments."

Where does she stand on the issue of homosexuality? The Episcopal Church has been embroiled for years in a debate over the ordination of homosexual clergy and "blessing" ceremonies for same-sex couples. Jefferts-Schori supports both -- and in fact, she voted in 2003 to confirm her denomination's first openly homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson. She told AP that she does not believe the Bible condemns "committed" homosexual relationships. God, she says, made some people "gay."

"Sexual orientation is pretty clearly defined at a very early age, before the age of reason. It's not a choice," she said. "In that case, a person of faith would need to say that it's a piece of how one is created." Consequently, she says, the Church should offer what she calls "a sacramental container" to help homosexuals find "holy ways of living in relationship."

Scriptures in the Bible about homosexual acts being sinful, she says, are misunderstood. "They're not about what today we see as mature human beings entering into committed relationships with each other on a full and equal basis," says Jefferts-Schori, who believes such "committed" relationships can be blessed. "The religious community's job, really, is to help all human beings find healthy and whole and holy ways of living in relationship."

Run, Don't Walk
Canon David Anderson is president of the American Anglican Council, a group of conservative clergy and lay people from the Episcopal Church. Anderson says he's not surprised at the recent comments by Jefferts-Schori, and offers what he sees as the only option for those still in churches aligned with ECUSA.

"I think they need to run, not walk, to the exit and find an orthodox Episcopal church," suggests Anderson.

According to Anderson, the Episcopal Church cast off biblical beliefs long ago in favor of postmodernism. Jefferts-Schori's comments, he claims, is merely in harmony with that. "Her remarks with regard to the plurality of ways to God are consistent both with what she has said before and with what the top level of leadership in the Episcopal Church has been saying now for probably a decade," says Anderson.

Associated Press reports that eight Episcopal dioceses have asked Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who heads the world Anglican Communion, to put them under a leader other than Bishop Jefferts-Schori. But the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas says it is not one of those dioceses asking Williams to appoint a conservative national leader to oversee them.

Dallas Bishop James Stanton said in a statement earlier this week that he still disagrees with the direction of the Episcopal Church, but that the language in the request from the other dioceses rejecting incoming Jefferts-Schori and seeking an alternate leader had "caused confusion and some anxiety" in his diocese.