The Lead

Bishop Barbara C. Harris, who recently celebrated the 20th anniversay of her consecration as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion rates a passing mention and a nifty photo in this television review from The New York Times. Writer Ginia Bellafante points out that Bishop Harris' great-grandmother "was a slave who wound up in a confrontation with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant."

That the bishop had fiery ancestors will surprise no one who knows her.

The bishop also sat for an interview with Tracy J. Sukraw of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Of the troubles currently roiling the Communion she said:

I think the whole Windsor process is an overreaction, which leads me to talk about the covenant, which I don't believe we need. I think our baptismal covenant is sufficient. We certainly do not need a juridical covenant; but rather, if we must have one, then it ought to be more relational in nature than designed to punish. I think that the pastoral council that is being suggested is an added layer of ecclesiastical bureaucracy that we do not need. We need to simply trust each other that we are acting in the best interests of our respective provinces. Interventions and crossing provincial boundaries need to stop. That is not a solution to controversies within a province.

The controversies of the day are not anything new. Controversy has always been present in the life of the church from her earliest, earliest days. There is an introductory comment on Paul's letter to the Colossians in which it says: the unity, stability and survival of the church was threatened by doctrinal diversity. This is nothing new. I think of the centuries that it took to reach agreement on the doctrine of the Trinity. Some folk want us to settle complex issues without even delving into them in any meaningful depth. And I think that schism is real, because we have competing claims of orthodoxy and other claims that are cause for hostility and division. A covenant or a Windsor Report [is] not going to quell controversy.

Comments (6)

Yes!

Congrats to Bishop Harris!!

Peter Carey+
http://santospopsicles.blogspot.com

Posted by Peter Carey | February 26, 2009 2:34 PM

Posted by Peter Carey | February 26, 2009 2:35 PM

Who can forget the consecration of Bishop Barbara Harris in Boston in 1989 in the presence of thousands of people and the media? What a day it was! Thanks be to God!

Posted by deirdregood | February 26, 2009 3:24 PM

Firey...YES!

Posted by Leonardo Ricardo | February 26, 2009 7:45 PM

Lets not forget the first diocesan woman bishop in the Anglican Communion, Penny Jamieson of Dunedin, Aoteroa/New Zealand. Bishop Jamieson was the first Woman Bishop actually in charge of a diocese.
American sites seem to forget her!

John Sandeman

Posted by Obadiah Slope | February 26, 2009 8:37 PM

Congratulations, Bishop Harris!

And I agree with everything she says in her Christian common-sense wisdom quoted above.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | February 28, 2009 12:46 AM

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