ANAHEIM, Calif. (ABP) — The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church called the evangelical teaching that individuals can be right with God a “great Western heresy” that is behind many problems facing the church and the wider society.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preaches at the Episcopal Church’s General Assembly in Anaheim, Calif. (RNS photo)
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Describing a United States church in crisis, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told delegates to the group’s triennial meeting in Anaheim, Calif., the overarching connection to problems facing Episcopalians has to do with “the great Western heresy — that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”
“It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus,” Jefferts Schori, the first woman to be elected as a primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion three years ago, said.
“That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being.”
Jefferts Schori said “heretical and individualistic understanding” contributes to problems like neglect for the environment and the current worldwide economic recession.
“The sins of a few have wreaked havoc with the lives of many, as greed and dishonesty have destroyed livelihoods, educational possibilities, care for the aged, and multiple forms of creativity,” she said. “And that’s just the aftermath of Ponzi schemes for which a handful will go to jail.”
In order to be faithful, “we need to be continually rediscovering that my needs are not the only significant ones,” she said.