Katherine Jefferts Schori, and Two Other Items

I have three items for today:

1.  A conservative Christian friend posted a link to a beliefnet article about the Episcopalian church's troubles.  The article quoted a Christian author who presented Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori as a liberal who mocked Christian doctrines (i.e., the Incarnation, the Trinity, etc.), proclaimed that human beings can take their place as God, and treated God, humans, and animals as "one undifferentiated blob" (the Christian author's words). 

I searched "Katherine Jefferts Schori" on the Internet, expecting to find a flaky liberal, like some of the guest speakers I heard when I was at Harvard Divinity School, or a mainline Protestant pastor I read about who said that the earth is our womb.  Instead, I found that Katherine Jefferts Schori sounded down-to-earth, measured, reasonable, and almost Mr. Spock-like.  I'm not saying she's a conservative, mind you, but she did not strike me as the kind of flaky liberal that the Christian author was depicting her as.  Actually, she had some profound thoughts.  Of course, I've not thoroughly researched Katherine Jefferts Schori, but I'm commenting based on what I read and heard.

Here are some of my favorite videos of Katherine Jefferts Schori:

----Katherine Jefferts Schori addresses the question of whether Jesus is the only way to God.  See here.

----Katherine Jefferts Schori speculates about the origin of prayer.  See here.

----Katherine Jefferts Schori talks with Bill Moyers about science and religion (she was once a marine biologist) as well as homosexuality.  See here.

Maybe you'll agree with Katherine Jefferts Schori.  Maybe you'll think that she's a heretic.  But, speaking for myself, I definitely found her worth listening to.

2.  Shawn Smucker had an encouraging post, Have You Considered Believing that Right Now You Are Enough?  Shawn talks about how even the small things that we do----a small church, a small blog----that we don't consider to be significant because they are small may be meaningful in somebody else's life.

3.  David Nilsen of The Screaming Kettle wrote an article on another web site about the 18 things he'd like his daughter to know.  Actually, some of that wisdom is applicable to adults, too!