Special Events
26th Presiding Bishop at All Saints!
On Sunday, November 12, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at All Saints at the 11am service. All were welcome to join us as we celebrated the beginning of Bishop Jefferts Schori nine-year term as the church's 26th Presiding Bishop.
Bishop Jefferts Schori, 52, an airline pilot and former oceanographer, becomes the first woman in Anglicanism's nearly 520-year history to lead a church province as its chief bishop. She was elected June 18 by her colleagues in the House of Bishops from among seven nominees. The House of Deputies confirmed her election the same day. The election was one of the highlights of the 75th General Convention's nine-day meeting in Columbus, Ohio - where the church also affirmed as its top priority peace and justice ministries framed by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
With November, she has concluded her local ministry in Nevada, where she was elected Bishop in 2000. Recently, she traveled with with current Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold to Lambeth Palace in England to meet with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a member province.
The Presiding Bishop is the Church's key leader in articulating its vision and mission, and assessing its work. The Presiding Bishop brings together what is increasingly a multicultural, multilingual and otherwise very diverse church. He or she advocates for social justice for all people of the world. As our chief pastor, the Presiding Bishop is the church's primary preacher and liturgical leader, and provides pastoral care to bishops, among others.
The Presiding Bishop is a leader in the Anglican Communion and in this role takes the title of Primate, from the latin for leader. The Primate works with the Communion and other faith communities toward the reconciliation of all persons as together we live the gospel.
The Investiture of the 26th Presiding Bishop
Prayer and celebration marked a service in Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. During a festal Holy Eucharist on Saturday, November 4, Bishop Jefferts Schori was "invested" as Presiding Bishop for a nine-year term. She preached, calling on Christians to live the gospel, especially in terms of eradicating poverty, hunger and disease, both locally and globally as advocated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Bishop Jefferts Schori's Saturday homily was based on Isaiah 25: 1-9, Psalm 998, Ephesians 4: 1-8, 11-16, and Luke 4:14-21. Please consider joining her in prayer and contemplation of these texts.
To read her sermon and to learn more about the 26th Presiding Bishop click here.