Take a few minutes to read what Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in a recent sermon. Here is a report about the presiding bishop's message, and here is the complete sermon.
How about a sneak peak? The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop instructed:
- Based on Acts 16, Paul was blind to what God was doing when he exorcised the demon from a slave girl.
- Paul deprives the demonically possessed slave girl "of her gift of spiritual awareness."
- The leader of the Episcopal Church then says, "Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so!,”
There is more said by the Presiding Episcopal Bishop so please read the above links.
As mentioned above, the ELCA is in full communion with the Episcopal Church. The ELCA's official website explains what 'full communion' means. It says:
'Full communion' means a mutual recognition that the partner churches hold 'the essentials of the Christian faith' within the catholic and apostolic tradition. In such a relationship, according to 'Called to Common Mission,' neither church 'seeks to remake the other in its own image, but each is open to the gifts of the other as it seeks to be faithful to Christ and his mission. They are together committed to a visible unity in the church's mission to proclaim the Word and administer the Sacraments' ('Called to Common Mission,' paragraph 2).
Full communion describes a relationship in which the partner churches fully recognize each other as part of the whole Church of Jesus Christ and seek to cooperate with each other in witness, life, and service. Mutual recognition of Baptism and a sharing of the Lord's Supper, allowing for joint worship and an exchangeability of members, also are part of a relationship of full communion." (see here)