Photo of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, courtesy of Episcopal News Service

I got that question a lot this summer from friends and family who aren’t Episcopalians and who are bemused by the stuff they read about my church in the national press.  So here is my brief, idiosyncratic, and much too general take on “what’s happening.”

Every three years the Episcopal Church gathers for General Convention.  General Convention is our governing body; we don’t have an archbishop or pope who decides things for us, but instead work in a complicated, messy, democratic way to get the business of the church done, and even to decide what our business really is.  Our bicameral legislative body is noticeably similar in structure to the U.S. Congress, which is no surprise because it developed alongside it, under the guidance of some of the same “founding fathers.”  It’s big, though, with over 800 people (lay and…

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori in Gaza in March, courtesy of Episcopal Life Online

When something has been a “crisis” for longer than one has been alive, it can be hard to maintain focus and energy around it. We’re all familiar with the idea of compassion fatigue. But the crisis in the Middle East, and at the moment particularly in Gaza, has reached a new boiling point. Rather than try to figure out the historical origins of the conflict, or God forbid get into a shouting match about victimization and blame, it seems the most important thing is to focus on the people being hurt by the situation, and not close our eyes to the ongoing and worsening humanitarian crisis.

“Innocent lives are being lost throughout the land we all call Holy, and as Christians remember the coming of the Prince of Peace, we ache for the absence of peace in the land…