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The first service at Christ Church Cathedral brought about 250 members of the congregation and visitors to the downtown church. In addition to preaching and celebrating the Eucharist, the presiding bishop also dedicated the cathedral's new altar, another hallmark for the cathedral which had not had a real altar in place since the building's renovation. (A table, hidden underneath the altar cloth, had served this purpose up until this time.)
In her sermon, the presiding bishop used a vivid image of a desert plant that grows in the southwest to illustrate that the Trinity is "about relationship and community." The plant, she said, for most of the year appears to be a bunch of dead sticks, except when there is a rain and small tiny leaves appear. Also, "ever once in a while," she said, large red blossoms appear so that "those dead-looking sticks can become
a glorious reminder of that playful reality of God."
The plant, which also has spines not unlike the crown of thorns, supports other life in the area. Owls, lizards, birds, insects and bees use the plant for shelter, food, seeds and pollen, she said, and in turn they fertilize the plant. As a model of interdependence, she said, the plant is "not a bad image of God" because the "God in trinity is really about relationship and community."
Through our baptismal vows, we declare this understanding of the Trinity, she suggested. "We recognize that deep down when we welcome another into the community of the body of Christ, we are acknowledging that we depend on each other and the presence of this new member will change the rest of us," she said.
The interdependence that the Trinitarian God recognizes, she said, can be expressed in a Zulu word that Archbishop Desmond Tutu uses: "ubuntu-it means, ‘I am because we are.' It's fundamental to our understanding of the body of Christ. When one part of the body suffers, we all do; when one of us rejoices, we all do."
Explaining its relevance to us, she noted that "this diocese knows something about ubuntu-your work in Jubilee ministries, your focus in millennial development goals...." she said. "You're beginning to know yourselves as Koreans, Sudanese, Karen, Chinese as well as Anglo. ... If we as individuals and as a community want to participate in God, then we too will be restless until all are at rest and comfort and healing of that holy community of God."
Following the service at Christ Church, Jefferts Schori left immediately for a noon service at the Church of the Resurrection, which has an international congregation. There she was introduced to the blend of Anglican and Sudanese music, worship styles, and languages that characterizes this unusual congregation.
As the service began, the church was filled with the sounds of tympani and brass and the enthusiastic singing of choir and congregation. Tom Bailey, organist/choirmaster at Resurrection, had composed a hymn in honor of the presiding bishop's visit. A large choir made up primarily of members of Resurrection and the Church of the Advent, with additional musicians from the University of Louisville and other neighboring churches, lifted hearts and spirits with their ministry.
Following the formal opening of the service, a different note of praise was added by the entrance of the Sudanese Youth Choir whose drums, dance and enthusiastic singing took the congregation to a still higher plane of excitement.
Trinity Sunday, as it happened, coincided with the celebration of a Sudanese national day. A number of Sudanese from other states had come to Louisville for that day and the members of that group participated freely and joyously in the music with clapping and ululation.
In addition to the Sudanese congregation at Resurrection Church there is now a small group of Karen people from Burma. A translator supplied by the Kentucky Refugee Ministries quietly put the service into Karen while a translator for the much larger Sudanese congregation performed the same service for the Sudanese. One longtime member of Resurrection proudly reported that on Pentecost there were representatives of eight language groups in the congregation.
Members of the Sudanese community applauded when Jefferts Schori reported to them that she recently met the Sudanese archbishop and that she and Gulick would meet him again soon. She was pleased that she would have such a positive report to take to him about the Louisville congregation.
Hoping not only to meet the presiding bishop but also to learn more about their Sudanese neighbors, visitors from many Louisville area congregations came to participate in this service. St. George Church, for example, sent 13 representatives in their church van.
Other visitors from as far away as Lexington and Elizabethtown also came to the service. A student exchange of sorts also took place when two students from Berea College, who often take Jacob, a Sudanese student, to church with them, came to Louisville to attend his home church. Their excitement and determination to come back to experience the Sudanese worship again were heartening.
The presiding bishop has made a strong, lasting impression on those familiar with her leadership. Before the service at the Christ Church Cathedral, several members attending a coffee for the bishop expressed their appreciation of her. Larry Bosco said, "I think she has taken the right road in very difficult times. .... This congregation is a microcosm of what is going in the church." Explaining that "last year things were really divisive" at the cathedral, which had undergone a transition in deans, he said the situation has improved. "I've seen tremendous growth. Things are good here."
Becky Norris, who has attended the cathedral for 14 years, commented that the diocese is fortunate to be able to spend time with her. Noting that Jefferts Schori is "an amazing person," Norris said that she and her husband "had the good fortune to meet her a few years ago when she was bishop of Nevada and we were vacationing."
Helen Murray, who has been a member for 50 years, was excited that she would get to hear Jefferts Schori speak twice that day, first at the cathedral and then at Resurrection Church. Having her visit the cathedral, she said, is "wonderful" because "she's a woman" and she "represents the whole Anglican church in the U.S."
Murray's friend, Barbara Davis, a cathedral member for 57 years, likewise felt the presiding bishop's was "really a special honor." She said she introduced herself to the presiding bishop and learned a lot in their brief conversation. "I found out that her home is really in Nevada, that she is seldom there, and her office is in New York."
Sam Dorr, the cathedral's operations director and a deputy to General Convention, said that he has heard Jefferts Schori speak before, at the 2006 General Convention, and "I am impressed every time I hear her and see her. She is so measured, she is calm, and she obviously thinks well on her feet... It was obvious the other night [at St. Matthew's forum] she is a real asset to the Episcopal Church."
The Rev. Dr. Helen Jones, a priest at St. Matthew's Church, said that "the first thing that people say to me is ‘it makes me proud to be an Episcopalian.' I mean she really is absolutely superb and spirited, and I think she truly was sent by God," said Jones. Later she added that Jefferts Schori "is my hero."
Similar views were expressed at Resurrection. Before the service, Reva Hart, a visitor from Christ Church, Elizabethtown, said she came to this service because her granddaughter, Alane Hart, a University of Louisville music student, had been recruited to sing with the choir. That was not the only reason she gave, however. Having seen Jefferts Schori on television, Hart said that "it's hard for me to describe what I really think about her. She has been constancy in all of this furor that goes on in the Episcopal Church, and she lends herself to the big picture not to the smaller things."
Resurrection choir member, Mildred Palmer, said she was excited to have the presiding bishop, having seen her on television. "You always see a strong person. It's such an uplifting thing."
Palmer was a member of St. John's Church before it and Immanuel Church merged to form Resurrection. She said that the choir had been rehearsing the music for the service for a little over a month, mostly on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Although she initially said she was not nervous about singing for the presiding bishop, as the time for the service drew nearer Palmer noted that her level of excitement had risen. After the service, she had one word to describe her impressions of the presiding bishop - "magnificent."
Cathedral Photos and Resurrection Photos by Donald Vish
