Re: [asa] The Episcopal Church's new Presiding Bishop

On 6/19/06, Robert Schneider <rjschn39@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> It is too soon to say what contribution Bp. Katharine will make to the
> science/religion dialogue as primate, but as someone who understands science
> from the inside, is theologically trained, and by every account I've gotten
> is one of the brightest persons in Episcopal Church leadership, I can only
> think that the science/religion dialogue within TEC will benefit. I'll keep
> you posted

What follows is what she believes in her own words
(http://thewitness.org/article.php?id=1034). After the quote see why
this doesn't matter.

On sources of authority and the theory of evolution:

Episcopalians acknowledge three sources of authority on questions of
faith: scripture, tradition and reason. Our scriptures are the
writings of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the Christian
writings (gospels and epistles) and several other books called the
Apocrypha.

Tradition means the fruits of millennia living in community -- our
ways of worship and our ways of interpreting scripture, which include
the analogical and metaphorical.

Reason implies, as one old hymn puts it, that "new occasions teach new
duties." We believe that revelation continues, that God continues to
be active in creation, and that all of the many ways of knowing --
including geology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and arts such as
opera, punk rock or painting -- can be vehicles through which God and
human beings partner in continuing creation.

Given this worldview, we are compelled to use the resources God has
given us. Not to use our brains in understanding the world around us
seems a cardinal sin.

As a scientist and an Episcopalian, I cherish the prayer that follows
a baptism, that the newly baptized may receive "the gift of joy and
wonder in all God's works." I spent the early years of my adulthood as
an oceanographer, studying squid and octopuses, including their
evolutionary relationships. I have always found that God's creation is
"strange and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139). ...

The vast preponderance of scientific evidence, including geology,
paleontology, archaeology, genetics and natural history, indicates
that Darwin was in large part correct in his original hypothesis.

I simply find it a rejection of the goodness of God's gifts to say
that all of this evidence is to be refused because it does not seem to
accord with a literal reading of one of the stories in Genesis. Making
any kind of faith decision is based on accumulating the best evidence
one can find -- what one's senses and reason indicate, what the rest
of the community has believed over time, and what the community judges
most accurate today.

That is not to say that the tradition or community understanding is
always correct, as we might note in the aftermath of Galileo's
discoveries. When the various sources of authority seem to be in
tension, we must use all our rational and spiritual faculties to
discern the direction in which a preponderance of the evidence points.
To do otherwise is to repudiate the very gifts God has given us.

------
This is probably all moot because +Schori will most likely be
presiding over the schism of the Episcopal Church itself or the schism
of the Episcopal Church from the rest of the Anglican Communion. Both
Schori and Anderson voted for the elevation of V. Gene Robinson in
2003. The Guardian has good story about this
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1800899,00.html) and I
pulled some quotes from it. Whether I am right about this or not there
will be so much controversy that I don't see any time for her to deal
with any faith/science questions.

----
A statement from Lambeth Palace last night expressed no
congratulations, stating that the Archbishop of Canterbury would be
sending a letter to the new primate this morning. It added: "There
will be nothing released this evening."
...
But Conservative Episcopalians and opponents of women's priests were
less thrilled. There were rumours that some conservative bishops had
voted for Bishop Schori as a means of accelerating the disintegration
of the church.
The Rev Martyn Minns, a British-born conservative evangelical who has
been active in opposing the church's leadership over its support for
homosexual clergy, particularly its election three years ago of the
gay bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, issued a statement saying:
"It is sad. She will bring into sharp relief the difference between
being an Episcopalian and being an Anglican. It is not clear how she
can do anything other than lead the Episcopal church in walking apart
from the rest of the communion. She has my prayers."
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.