Episcopal Press and News
WESTERN NEW YORK: Presiding bishop visits diocese, refugee ministry
Episcopal News Service. November 2, 2010 [110210-03]
Laurie Wozniak, Director of Communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York
The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York welcomed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori Oct. 29-31 to address its annual convention and to experience a brief glimpse of the mission and ministry of the Buffalo-based diocese.
During her address to diocesan convention on Oct. 29, Jefferts Schori referred to the church's original name, the Domestic and Foreign Mission Society, and detailed examples of the church's continuing embrace of mission. She also acknowledged that new and unique communities of faith are emerging within the Episcopal Church, communities whose corporate lives bear little resemblance to "church" as most people experience it.
"The Episcopal Church has been waiting for decades for people to come through our beautiful red doors and then we'll turn them into Episcopalians," she said. "This is about the reverse. It's about leaving those red doors and going out into the community to meet people.
"Congregations that focus primarily on Sunday morning ministry are missing a whole lot of people who are looking for community or are looking for the opportunity to worship and study and have fellowship together, but they can't do it on Sunday morning, or they won't do it on Sunday morning."
In her response to a question about the emerging church, the presiding bishop noted that some of these new communities have no building, but instead meet around kitchen tables, in coffee houses or in health clubs.
The presiding bishop on Oct. 30 visited the Journey's End Refugee Services, an affiliate agency of Episcopal Migration Ministries that provides resettlement services in Western New York. The agency recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Refugee families from Congo, Burma and Iran shared their stories with Jefferts Schori, and representatives of several diocesan congregations that have sponsored refugees explained what the ministry has meant to the parishes involved.
"I am grateful for your presence here in the United States. You make our community much richer," Jefferts Schori told the refugees, as her comments were simultaneously translated. "We are a nation of immigrants. We have all come from someplace else. The gifts and skills and the history and the culture that you bring make us a much more interesting and important community. Thank you for your courage in making this journey."
Jefferts Schori's whirlwind tour of the city of Buffalo touched on the city's past glory as the western terminus of the Erie Canal and highlighted its world-renowned architecture, as well as its current challenges and successes.
Jefferts Schori was buffeted by a steady, brisk wind off the Niagara River as she met on its shoreline near the mouth of Lake Erie with Julie O'Neill, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, an organization committed to cleaning up the shorelines in Western New York. The shallowest of all the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is seriously imperiled today due to contaminated sediments that were deposited before bans on the use of certain chemicals and pollution reduction initiatives were implemented several years ago. "The public is largely unaware of the problems that exist because the lake looks clean," explained O'Neill.
At St. Patrick's Church in Cheektowaga, the presiding bishop shared lunch and conversation with about 50 of the diocese's youth and young adults, navigating questions on her work schedule and her childhood, the Anglican Covenant, and the qualities Episcopalians in Western New York should look for as they elect their 11th bishop on Nov. 20.
Jefferts Schori also preached during two celebrations of Holy Eucharist -- at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Buffalo on Oct. 30 and at Calvary Episcopal Church in Williamsville on Oct. 31.
"Our future as Christian community depends on our ability to build new communities from old clay, to find new treasure in unexpected places," the presiding bishop said at St. Paul's Cathedral, echoing the message she delivered to convention the evening before. "It doesn't necessarily mean giving up these beautiful sacred spaces. But it undoubtedly means finding other constructed spaces that become holy when filled with people seeking blessing and becoming blessing. Where will you share the treasure you have within you?"