A Wing and a Prayer: A Message of Faith and Hope

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2008 by Johnson, Jay Emerson

A Wing and a Prayer: A Message of Faith and Hope. By Katharine Jefferts Schori. Harrisburg, Penn. and New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2007. 169 pp. $15.00 (paper).

As the first woman to serve as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori faces a daunting task on several fronts. Lake every highly visible public figure, she must contend with a media culture in which most people in the church she serves know her only through press releases. The essays in this collection, each of which began as a sermon, take the reader beyond media spin and into the vision Schori brings to her work.

In the gospel story of Jesus' calming a stormy sea, for example, Schori finds an image for Christian ministry. "The leader of God's people lives in an open boat," a place where everyone's gifts are needed to navigate through a chaotic world. Extending the metaphor, she invites us to see that "all of us on this earth are on the same lifeboat" (p. 64) and share a common destination: God's own banquet where everyone is fed. The Christian leader is charged with speaking that truth for the sake of transforming and repairing a divisive world (p. 65).

To that description I would add the work of translating historic Christian faith for all those huddled together in the boat. This is precisely what Schori is doing in these accessible essays. Some readers may find the references to popular culture in the essay titles a bit too folksy ("A Cup of Starbucks," "Everybody in the Pool," or "Gone Fishin'") or perhaps indicative of scant theological substance. But the careful reader will discern a depth of biblical and theological reflection in these essays, translated and rearticulated to reach as wide an audience as possible, which is exactly what every good pastor does.

One of the strengths of this collection lies in the passionate vocation Schori has undertaken to cast the gospel net as broadly as she can. "We all make up that net," she writes, "interconnected, tied together, sometimes torn, setting out-and sent out-to fish for life. We fish wherever we are, whatever we're doing. The people we love become part of the net. And the net grows and deepens, and sweeps ever more blessings from that rich and fertile sea of life" (p. 121).

Stressing Gods abundance when we so often see only scarcity and finding a blessing in diversity rather than a "problem" shapes her vocational path. This reflects the oft-cited notion of "Anglican comprehensiveness." But rather than ecclesial politics, Schori grounds this vision in biblical traditions and what she refers to repeatedly in these essays as "God's dream," variously described as the holy city, the heavenly banquet, an unending feast to which everyone is invited, where no one goes hungry or thirsty. For Schori, that kind of dream demands the hard work of self-emptying, of giving ourselves away in love, a divine calling that does not belong only to the ordained. Clergy are called to model this "kenotic ministry" so that all the baptized find God's own abundance in lives of sacrificial love (p. 24). This is what makes the work of ministry so hard, for all of us, because Christian faith is not primarily about intellectual assent to doctrines. Faith, rather, is about what we give our hearts to, as the linguistic root of the word "believe" actually means (p. 97).

Forgoing the primacy of the intellect while not abandoning the important role it plays in faith marks an ongoing challenge for Schori (and the candor, humor, and humility in these essays belong among the strengths of this collection). As she wryly puts it, "My name is Katharine, and I'm a recovering scientist" (p. 96). Before pursuing ordained ministry, Schori had already distinguished herself in the field of oceanography, including an earned doctorate. Moving from that world of concrete data analysis to a world of faith has not been easy. She likens herself in that regard to gospel figures such as Thomas and Martha, who needed to see before believing. For her, faith is an ongoing struggle to bridge those two worlds. This admission lends further texture to her insistence on embracing God's dream for the whole creation, for what we presently see in the world around us is not all there is. The church is called therefore to make that dream visible, to see it emerging and unfolding in our shared ministry (p. 96).

Schori is also a licensed pilot. She draws on that experience as well (thus the tide of this book) to reflect on the life of faith and hope. No less than flying, Christian faith means living with unpredictability, swiftly changing conditions, and the anxiety that often attends such experiences. It means living in hope for the new things God continually brings about, what she calls "practicing resurrection" and "living in openness" to God's future. "Resurrection means that creation isn't over and done with. And if we're made in the image of God, then we've got creation work to do. What's coming may not look exactly like what we knew before, but God promises that it will be abundant and life-giving" (p. 100).