A Christian's duty should not end with the weekly worship service, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church said Sunday.
Speaking at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori said Christians must extend their efforts beyond the physical building to reach people in need within the community.
"The work we do on Sunday morning and inside what we traditionally call 'the church' … is about supporting people for their lives outside of this place," she said. "Get lost in your involvement in the needs of the world and the opportunities to love your neighbor."
Jefferts Schori, the 26th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and the first woman to serve in the position, led worship services Sunday at St. Paul's and at St. John's Church on Church Hill.
St. John's, the first church built in Richmond, is celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding in 1611 as the Henrico Parish in the Citie of Henricus.
"You have survived as a living community … and you have thrived as a living community," Jefferts Schori told the St. John's congregation.
The Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley, rector of St. Paul's, told children that the presiding bishop "wants us to be the best followers of Jesus we can be."
During the two separate services Sunday, Jefferts Schori lauded both congregations for their efforts to meet the needs of those in the local community and across the world.
"If you're going to keep serving the right master, the work is mostly about listening," she said. "What nursing child is loudest right now? Who's hurting? Where are the cries coming from?"
Jefferts Schori proved to be a personable, engaging speaker. During a 45-minute conversation with parishioners at St. Paul's, she injected humor at times but seriously answered questions put before her.
She spoke on topics ranging from the unrest in the Middle East to the future of the Episcopal Church.
"It may give us more hope for peace in the Middle East; it may launch a series of internal civil wars," she said of political upheaval in countries such as Egypt and Libya. "Our task is to pray and advocate for justice for everybody."
She said the church is changing, becoming more multicultural and multiethnic, with nearly 2.4 million members worldwide; dioceses outside the Unites States are growing, while Episcopal churches in America are seeing increases from Sudanese and other immigrant populations.
Traditional Episcopal churches that are deeply engaged in healing the communities around them are growing, too, she said.
"It's the inward-looking congregations that are shrinking and dying, as maybe they should," Jefferts Schori said.
But people aren't joining organizations, religious or otherwise, at the rate they had in the past, she cautioned.
The fastest-growing religious affiliation is "none of the above," she said, and many young adults, who were not raised in faith traditions, are asking the same spiritual questions as those who were.
"We're not going to see them if we stay [in the church,]" the presiding bishop said. "We're only going to see them if we go out there and look and engage.
"That's the challenge. Episcopalians have not, traditionally, been very good at that. We've relied on evangelism by reproduction."
jslayton@timesdispatch.com
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