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Truly a Shepherd’s Crook

Commentary by Jay Akasie
Episcopalians for Traditional Faith

Ever wonder why the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, doesn’t carry a crozier?

A crozier is a big shepherd’s crook used by a bishop as a symbol of his leadership over his flock. All the bishops of the Episcopal Church carry one.

But Ms. Schori chooses to carry what’s known as a metropolitan cross during church processions. It’s a cross with two crosspieces – one representing the beam to which Christ’s hands were nailed, the other a board above his head. The metropolitan cross is, appropriately, carried by an archbishop who has authority over a metropolitan province.

Archbishop Regalia?

A presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is someone elected by the House of Bishops to preside over that legislative body once every three years at General Convention. Up until the mid-20th century, the presiding bishop did not leave his diocese. Only recently has the position become full-time.

A presiding bishop is by no means an archbishop. He (or she, in this case) is just another bishop. Which is why Ms. Schori’s decision to carry such a cross and brand herself as a metropolitan of the Episcopal Church is extraordinarily brazen and misguided. A convert to the Episcopal Church, she appears to lack any and all knowledge of Anglican-American customs and seems unschooled in history.

A significant chunk of the staff at the Episcopal Church Center learned today they’d be laid off. The money is running out and the Church let go some of its best workers.

Yet Ms. Schori continues to spend millions of dollars on legal fees to sue dioceses and their bishops who don’t fall into line with her secular, socialist agenda. Perhaps she will explain to the workers of 815 Second Avenue why they’re being laid off while she has plenty of money to wage vendettas against traditionalists.

Then again, an archbishop and metropolitan doesn’t have to explain anything to anyone . . .

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