New Presiding Bishop Schori Interview on the Today Show

The Today Show's Meredith Vieira conducts a taped interview with the new Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori accessible here. (Menu on the left for The Today Show video brings up a list of topics of which one is the interview lasting about 5 minutes and easily downloaded).

Filmed in GTS' Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Bishop Schori, who is to be installed this weekend in Washington DC, addressed questions about connections between science and religion and controversies surrounding her election. Pressed on what issues behind these controversies are, she opined at least two: what it means to be made in God's image and what it means to live faithfully in community.

Worth a look (and GTS also looks good in the background)!

Tudor Family Values

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Relics of the Templars unearthed

Something for DaVinci Code enthusiasts:

Found in 1742 near Royston, Cambridgeshire, and open to the public, this cave shows signs of being a secret meeting place of the Knights Templar in the 1300's. According to an article in the Cambridge Evening News, every inch of the wall space is filled with carving, from finely-wrought images to rough graffiti. Various figures and symbols are clues to the cave's history. There are the saints - Christopher, Catherine, George. There's Jesus and his disciples. And there's a shrine to a heretic, being burned at the stake. This could be Jacques de Moray, the Templars' last Grand Master.

The original entrance was through a long, thin shaft, through which the knights climbed, using a series of toe-holes.

"The top would have been hidden inside a safehouse," explains Peter Houldcroft, whose archeological survey revealed that the cave is orientated to the East - to the point at which the sun rises on the saint's day of John the Baptist, the patron of the Templars.

The Templars extended the cave, decorated the walls with symbolic carvings and erected a wooden platform, half-way up the wall, to act as both a stepping platform (down to the cave floor) and a waiting area for the uninitiated.

When life as a Templar (even a secret life as a Templar) became too tough, in the late 1340s, they abandoned the cave, scratching out some of the most incriminating carvings and filling it in with earth. And so it remained, unchanged and undisturbed, for 400 years.

Was the apostle Junia a woman?

In an article from the Star-Telegram for Oct 28th 2006, on former Texas journalist Rena Pederson's new book The Lost Apostle, Searching for the Truth About Junia (Jossey-Bass, 2006) are some astonishing opinions.

In Romans 16:7 Paul says: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles and they were in Christ before I was."

Against the argument that Junia was a prominent woman apostle before Paul (an argument that has patristic traction as well as the support of modern translations like the NRSV) is Southwestern Baptist Theological President Paige Patterson.

Pederson quotes Patterson as saying, "I'm not arguing that Junia isn't a woman. It is very possible she was, but it can't be proved. Even if it is a girl's name, it doesn't mean it's a girl. I was placed in a girl's dorm because my name is Paige, just like a boy named Sue. ...But the point is there is no way to establish that Junia was in fact a female. The attempt to make her one of the apostles, based on a suspect text...is an agenda looking for a reason."

Not content with an argument based on his own experience of having a gender neutral name, Patterson added in an email to the article's writer that "apostle" has both generic and specialized meanings: "Even if Junia were female, which cannot be demonstrated, the text in question would still not establish that she functioned as Peter or Paul, a position of apostolic authority. The word 'apostolos' means 'one who is sent' and whether Junia is male or female, the text means only that that individual had a calling from God to share the Gospel. Evangelicals have always argued that women can and should do this."

1) Since the name Junia appears widely on gravestones, inscriptions and in ancient writings as a woman's name, isn't it likely that Junia is a woman in Romans 16:7? The contrary argument is that the form in Rom 16:7 "Junias" is not an accusative but a diminutive of the name "Junianes." Dimunitive forms of this male name occur far less frequently in ancient texts.

2) Arguments from modern gender-neutral names like Cooper, Paige, and such are irrelevant to study of ancient names. Shouldn't a seminary president know this?

3) There's no evidence that I know of to distinguish between generic and specialized meanings of the term apostle in ancient texts. This is the kind of separate but equal argument used to deny a class or group of people access to priviledge or power. It is a modern rather than an ancient interpretative tool.

All of this goes to show that interpreting the roles and offices of women in the NT still has existential relevance.

Blue Sky, Rain, Sun and a Rainbow

Yesterday evening in the mix of glorious fall weather we've been having in Maine, a rainbow appeared in the sky just about an hour before sunset. This is to share for people not on sabbatical :)

Promoting Jesus' Family Values #1

Perusing a reviewers blog from the Library Journal, I came across this!
Scroll down on the left side to the advertisment...(it comes and goes, to be sure, along with other books).

Thanks to Reverend Dr Mom for a fabulous weekend in the rectory at Barnstable on beautiful Cape Cod going back and forth to St. Mary's for talks with parishioners about the origins of the Bible and a book signing for Jesus' Family Values!

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: Summer 06

What a summer of travel: a conference and holiday in Scotland with parents and family followed by 2 weeks in Maine with my niece Joscelyn followed by two weeks in Ireland driving with my parents!

The SNTS conference in Aberdeen was excellent: outstanding presidential address from Sean Freyne on litererary and archaeological material from 1st C Galilee and good papers in sessions I attended. I was able to work in the UL whilst in Cambridge. And I was able to visit the Chester Beatty Library and manuscripts in Dublin.

Everyone should have a sabbatical. This fall I am learning Spanish and writing.

Authorial Admonitions

Recovering from a bout of shingles, I have been correcting first proofs of my new book on Jesus and Family Values. Katha Pollitt's piece, "Thank You for Hating My Book" in yesterday's Times
came at the right time to remind me of the vagueries of book reception.

Ponte Simone de Beauvoir

For the first time, a bridge in Paris has been named after a woman, in this case, Simone de Beauvoir. Too obvious, perhaps. At least, ancient Egyptians would have thought so. And more recently, who does not know the 1981 book This Bridge Called My Back: Radical Writings By Women of Color by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua?

In favor of and against B033

Here's the text of what was finally passed on the last day at GC in response to the Windsor Report:-

Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, That the 75^th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report’s invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further

Resolved, that this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

The debate on this issue has been reported extensively at ENS and elsewhere. Bishop Gene Robinson has written an open letter in The Witness to lbgt people in the aftermath of GC alluding to the debate. He makes the point that it was the appeal of Presiding Bishop elect Katharine Schori that tipped the opinions of many to vote in favor of the resolution at great personal cost.

Let's remember that a statement of dissent from B033 on the basis of conscience has already appeared from Bishop Chane supported by Bishops from dioceses including Vermont, Chicago, Newark, Northern Michigan and Rochester. This is an indication of principled support for the nominations of glbt clergy to the episcopate, recognizing ministries of glbt folk in the Anglican communion and condemning the coersive elements of the debate in the House of Deputies.

B033 is of course a response to the Windsor report. Passing B033 is a way of making sure that Presiding Bishop-Elect Schori gets invited to Lambeth. One could say that Bishop Schori's election guarenteed the passage of a resolution like B033. The question is whether the compromise that B033 represents (and with which no one is happy) is worth it.

I am reminded of Paul's attempt to coerce the Corinthian body by arguing against women prophets in I Corinthians 11 finally from custom and with all the weight of his personal authority that such a custom isn't recognized and just isn't done in the churches. This kind of argumentation tells us far more about how Paul uses his personal authority in the service of community order to coerce women prophets and far less about women prophets in the Corinthian community. And so it seems to be in the debate about B033. It is entirely up to dioceses to raise up candidates for episcopal office and I trust that this will continue without an eye to resolutions like this.

From Columbus: Aftermath

It seems that the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to the office of Presiding Bishop is the work of the Holy Spirit. Elected on the fifth ballot, to many at Convention her election was a complete surprise. However, a bishop I know indicated in conversation at GC that she was lucid and theologically articulate in presentations to the house of Bishops before the election so brother and sister bishops already thought highly of her. For a reaction from a liberal perspective (which I share), see this post from the Diocese of Washington after her election. A marine biologist by training, her comments on evolution are available on the web.

The NY Times profiles her today and calls her family of origin "staggeringly competant." If her press conference after the election is anything to go on, she is capable of handling barbed questions and critical remarks well either in English or Spanish.

The duties of the PB include: the charge to be chief pastor and primate, to provide for episcopal oversight in the absense of a diocesan bishop, to take order for the consecration of bishops when duly elected and from time to time assemble the bishops to meet as a house or council, to preside over meetings of the House of Bishops, and to call a joint session of the Houses of Bishops and Deputies at General Convention. Any new bishops will be consecrated by Presiding Bishop Schori.

Thanks to the Diocese of Nevada for providing the whole church with Bishop Schori. Brave new world indeed!