Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Comparative Christology in Dallas


From the Living Church-

Sparks glowed and winked only momentarily on Dec. 12 when the Episcopal Church’s longest-serving evangelical bishop and its Presiding Bishop discussed the Second Person of the Trinity.

With the Diocese of Dallas’ two traditionalist bishops listening from the front row, the Most Rev. Jefferts Schori and the Rt. Rev. William C. Frey delivered modulated addresses on set topics: “Who is Christ for Me?” and “Who is Christ for the World?”

Only in response to questions did the presiding bishop cause, a couple of times, any considerable shaking of heads in an audience of more than 500 at the Church of St. Michael & All Angels, for decades one of the Episcopal Church’s largest and wealthiest parishes.

One questioner sought her views on the value of protecting unborn life. Bishop Jefferts Schori said the issue of abortion “raised the tragic question of whose life and privileges” deserved to triumph, the mother’s or the unborn child’s. She left the matter at that, philosophically speaking.

Another questioner brought up the bodily resurrection of Christ. Did she believe there had been one? She had (clearly) not been there herself, she said. The disciples believed it had happened. She went on: “The only permanent healing is the Resurrection of Christ.”

In one of her lectures she called Jesus’ sacrificial death “a fully divine participation in humanity, a making-holy (which is what sacrifice means) of the meaning of his life, and all human life.” Thus: “The resurrection is sacramental fruit of sacrifice.”

Bishop Frey, who was expelled from Guatemala by a military junta in 1971, said the church’s work is not limited to social engagement.

“[E]vangelism is our primary calling,” Bishop Frey said. “It would sell Jesus short to imply that he’s simply an example for us to follow, or another one of the world’s moral teachers. He’s a doer — the one who acts with power to transform us from what we are to what we can become.”

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/12/16/comparative-christology-in-dallas

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