Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Episcopal bishop foresees shift for church buildings


The Episcopal Church will remain a work in progress as it rebuilds from a 2008 schism and seeks to attract members, its leader said on Tuesday.

"We're a community that is on the road together, wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in this particular age," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said before a morning service at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Wilkinsburg. "In order to communicate that message, we have to go out into the community."

That may or may not include establishing traditional churches, said Jefferts Schori, who last visited the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh about a month after a majority of clergy and lay deputies voted to break with the church she leads to follow their more theologically conservative bishop, Robert Duncan, who formed the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Although the two churches battled over property in court, Jefferts Schori said she forsees a day when churches will become something different.

"More faith communities will decide not to have a permanent dedicated structure in the coming years," she said. "They can be a blessing if they are used all the time, but many of them are only used on Sunday mornings. Is that an effective use of the resource?"

Some churches do hold services in other buildings or in homes.

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Related article: Despite turmoil, Episcopal presiding bishop believes Anglican Communion is stronger than ever

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