The Lead

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reflects on the variety of understandings she encounters around the world. The Bible, the Prayer Book, gender and sexuality all are seen through lenses of culture:

The primates' meeting has come and gone, and I'm sure there will have been abundant commentary by the time this is published. I'd like to reflect on some of the deeper issues behind our conversations about sexuality, particularly the influence of our understanding of gender.

On gender roles she notes:

As I traveled from the airport to the hotel where we met, I noticed that almost every woman on the street past childhood was veiled, with at least her hair covered with a scarf, and in a not-small number of cases, covered head to toe in a long, flowing garment. I even observed a couple of women whose coverings were so thorough that I couldn't even see a slit for their eyes -- the fabric must have been thin enough for them to see through, but not for others to see in. The hotel had only a handful of female employees, mostly professional women who worked behind the desk. Only a couple of them wore no scarf.

The striking thing was that the meeting room where the primates' deliberations took place, the hotel's largest and principal conference room, was bedecked with several large paintings of half-naked women. It was a space that, in normal circumstances, apparently was used only by men. I found it striking that public expectations of women are modest dress and covering, yet there is evidently a rather different attitude toward men's entertainment.

During her visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth she experienced more thought provoking encounters:

I had one other pertinent encounter in Fort Worth, Texas, after the primates' meeting. I was greeting a long line of people at the end of the day of the reorganizing convention for the diocese. I spoke with a man in a wheelchair who appeared to have had a stroke.

The next person in line began by telling me that the guy in the wheelchair was a retired obstetrician/gynecologist and that "he's the most interesting gay man I know, and I'm proud to call him a friend." Rather an unusual conversation starter. And then he went on to say, "All of this is really about male supremacy, isn't it?" His words, not mine, but worth consideration.

Read it all at Episcopal Life Online.

Comments (7)

One of those times that "read the whole thing" can't be overemphasized. Thank God for a Presiding Bishop that tells it like it is.

Posted by John B. Chilton | February 24, 2009 2:33 PM

Her frankness is really refreshing.

Posted by Jim Naughton | February 24, 2009 2:37 PM

When I clicked to read the PB's full article at Episcopal Life Online, I had to laugh. On the right side of the piece was a column with the heading, "Do you know a boy who loves to sing?"--an advertisement for St Thomas Choir School.

Posted by deirdregood | February 24, 2009 2:56 PM

The PB is one prayer book off. There is no obey language in the 1928 TEC prayer book. There is in the 1892 prayer book.

Posted by David Allen |dah • veed| | February 24, 2009 9:11 PM

Daveed beat me to the punch, but I can add some (family!) detail:

I have my late grandmother's BCP (a gift from her aunt, in 1915. The Custodian's date, is January 1907). There it is, p. 282: Wilt thou obey him, and serve him...?

It's funny, that the "1928" had (has?) such loyal partisans. I imagine the decision made just before---to delete "obey and serve"---was as gawdawfully vituperative as anything that happened in the adoption of the '79! ;-/

JC Fisher

[NB: while our jaws are dropping, one really doesn't need to go to the Global South, to hear the (inevitable?) question, re same-sex relationships: "Who's The Man? Who's The Woman?" :-X]

Posted by tgflux | February 24, 2009 11:45 PM

Very funny, Dierdre ;-)

But do you know a boy who loves to sing? They're where men who love to sing come from.

We're going to run out of ex-Baptists eventually.

Posted by Howard Preston Burkett | February 25, 2009 12:26 AM

I don't "get" your point Howard. Our grandson loves to sing as do his father and mother. They have been Episcopalians all along.

Posted by ann | February 25, 2009 10:10 AM

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