Episcopalian Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

I was not in attendance at the triennial Convention of the USA Episcopal Church. I did attend my own Diocese of Milwaukee Convention after our new Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected. The various reports I heard were more than positive. Illuminated from the heart comes close to describing the tone of those sharing their experience of waiting to hear who was elected as our next national Presiding Bishop.

She told me the story at the dinner table of the Diocese of Milwaukee Convention, "I was attending the Women's Caucus when we received word that a Bishop had been selected. We all began to pray. Beyond our meeting walls, farther than the end of the stadium length hallway we felt a silent rush of breath. It was as a wave of air was making mute every thing in it's path. Suddenly it was on our backs and I felt my skin chill on the back of neck. Next we heard the announcement and began cheering . It was more than any of us had dared to dream. It was divine".

I had my own neck chilling moment when I heard that Bishop Katharine is a pilot. If we believe that God Speaks unexpectedly, then I trust that God answered a riddle for me. During my daily contemplative time last summer I envisioned a white linen costume falling from the sky to land on the front steps of my church. The costume was in the form of an empty single pilot plane. At the time of the vision I could only thank God for the delightfully odd image while praying mercy that I didn't know what it meant. The Spirit is a mystery, sometimes to confuse us into seeing something differently and sometimes to tickle our heart in affirmation that what we believe , though unseen is real.
The Lectionary for today, Ephesians 4:9-16, reminds us that God can lift us from the captivity of death. God can descend to our pain, in Jesus, to be with us in our human struggles. This covenant is eternally rooted, from Jacob's dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder to heaven. Perhaps Paul was correct that the gifts of angels wings land on us at random while we trust that God is knitting an numinous quilt for the entire Creation.