Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori gave a wide-ranging radio interview during her pastoral visit to the Diocese of Atlanta.
 
National Public Radio affiliate WABE-FM has posted an eight-minute interview with the Presiding Bishop by veteran reporter Denis O'Hayer.
 
The archived segment began in mid-sentence as Bishop Jefferts Schori answered a question about General Convention’s Resolution D025. That resolution said that God “has called and may call” gay and lesbian persons to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.
 
“It does not represent a change. It represents a reaffirmation of what church law has said for a long time,” the Presiding Bishop said.
 
General Convention approved canonical changes in 1994 that prohibit discriminating against potential candidates based on their sexual orientation.
 
“The conversation’s been going on in the Episcopal Church for 45 years,” the Presiding Bishop said. “The reality is that same-sex unions are blessed in many churches of the Anglican Communion; not just in the United States or Canada, but also in England — not officially, but that is also reality.”
 
O’Hayer asked the Presiding Bishop about a scriptural basis for General Convention’s decision.
 
“The scriptural basis for what the convention affirmed about our discernment process is that each human being is made in the image of God,” she said.
 
O’Hayer than asked if there is a distinction between how one is made and one’s behavior. The Presiding Bishop’s answer suggested that seeing people as made in the image of God includes seeing their sexual orientation as God-given.
 
“My experience in talking to people about this is that some people who object to the ordination of gay and lesbian people really begin with their orientation. They cannot see beyond that,” she said. “Others will admit that gay and lesbian people might be created in the image of God and be fit matter, whatever their orientation, but object to the fact that some live in partnered relationships.”
 
The Presiding Bishop turned to a different point: The church does not exclude people from ordained ministry because of certain besetting sins.
 
“We do not reject people who give evidence of gluttony. We do not, prima facie, reject people who give evidence of excessive consumerism. I think those are far more challenging issues than a long-term, committed relationship with a person of the same gender.”
 
The Presiding Bishop rebuffed a question by O’Hayer on whether the Episcopal Church’s policies on sexuality are a top-down imposition on conservatives.
 
“It’s hard to understand General Convention as being top-down,” she said. “It’s more than 1,000 people gathered together, representing the broad diversity of this church, seeking discernment in the name of Christ together. It’s not an archbishop saying, ‘This is how things must be.’”
 
O’Hayer asked if the Episcopal Church is diverted from its ministry when it engages in lawsuits on ownership of church property.
 
“The reality is that this is a portion of our mission,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “Preserving the assets of the church is part of our responsibility. It’s certainly not the whole of our responsibility. There are abundant resources for the work of the gospel. Our task is to focus them in the ways that can be most productive.”
 
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