Some might think she should start with her own church which desperately needs reconciling and is definitely in need of healing. After all, if you have some 60 parish lawsuits and three dioceses in and out of court, it's just a tad hypocritical to call for the vast restoration of the universe when your own backyard is littered with lawyers, hurting bishops and priests, and a church in freefall with both financial losses and emptying pews. Not to mention that the very priests who could make the church grow, namely the evangelicals, are not wanted in liberal and revisionist dioceses because they are deemed too exclusionary in their doctrinal views and will not endorse TEC's rampant pan-sexuality now racing like HIV throughout the whole denomination.

Nonetheless, Mrs. Jefferts Schori wants to grow the church even as more parishioners are walking out the back door than are walking through the front door. The Presiding Bishop says TEC is losing 19,000 members a year partly because "Anglos don't produce children." She might have added wistful remembrance by aging Episcopalians as they die off and are buried in parish columbaria.

She neglected to mention the more than 100,000 orthodox (former) Episcopalians who now make up the 755 parishes of the Anglican Church of North America, sort of like parking a 2010 Cadillac on the lot of a used car dealership and hoping no one will spot it.

Jefferts Schori offers up a five-point message. She ticks off the five marks of mission the church has adopted: proclaim the good news (that's not THE Good News); teach (inclusivity), baptize (you have a place in heaven now, baby -- believe what you like,) and nurture its members; relieve human suffering (but not the suffering of orthodox fleers); change the unjust structures of society; and care for the Earth (but don't change your lifestyle).

She also offers up five different ways to implement the marks: grow congregations in their ability to practice mission; identify and evangelize the community; emphasize education and formation for all ages; battle poverty and injustice in intentional ways; and develop networks, partnerships and covenant relationships.

Regarding evangelism, the bishop said she hoped Episcopalians would feel as comfortable sharing the good news about Jesus as about a new restaurant they had discovered. On education, she suggested they use their brains, not just their ears.

One word she clearly does not like is curtailment. In her post-convention July letter to the church, she noted the national church's pared down budget of $23 million which means she might want to meet less with her attorney, David Booth Beers, who we are told charges between $500 and $600 an hour (discounted, of course).

Jump-starting the church has always been a playful pastime for previous and incumbent presiding bishops'.

In 2006, the 75th General Convention passed Resolutions (A037) and (A042) to improve the health of congregations and the church by faithfully living out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and working toward the goals of 20/20.

That ill-fated 20/20 project -- to double the church by 2020 -- hasn't happened of course, as the new fangled "doctrine" of inclusion makes Mt. 28 largely irrelevant. The fact is the exact opposite is happening with more than 100,000 Episcopalians walking away from the church. More it would seem are waiting in the wings to fly away to more spiritually conducive climes. Every diocese is on a downward trajectory, but still they pay these bishops six-figure salaries. Would GM and GE CEO's still be employed if they were not turning their businesses around?

Last month, the Episcopal Church ran an advertisement in "USA Today" focusing on the welcoming nature of the church's core beliefs and practices, including those related to Christ, the Bible, women's ordination and relationships. It is now available to dioceses and congregations for local media use.

The hope, here again, is that this will somehow draw in the multitudes waiting desperately to hear a word from V. Gene Robinson on the joys of Sodomy even if it is not exactly the Word of the Lord.

"We want to herald and share our welcoming message," said Anne Rudig, director of communication. The ad is the first in a series of materials that will be made available to dioceses, congregations and provinces as an overall communication strategy for the church is developed.

"In the past few weeks, news about various religions has focused more about who's excluded from certain practices than who is included," Rudig noted. "We follow Christ and believe that he's very clear that all are welcome. We strive to 'love our neighbors as ourselves.'"

Now those "certain practices" are sexual in nature. God has surrounded our sexuality with barriers and, in the words of Ecclesiastes, "whoso breaketh a hedge a serpent will bite" (Eccles 10:8).

The Episcopal Church is being bitten on a regular basis. Tens of thousands of former Episcopalians now believe that TEC does not "follow Christ", but does follow the church's own devices and desires. They have walked out the door never more to return. More are following them with each passing week.

Even as TEC says it "welcomes all", it is decidedly unwelcoming to those who actually profess what the Christian Faith teaches. While that might be a recipe for a certain kind or type of inclusion, it is not a recipe for those who believe there are legitimate boundaries as to what we believe. If Boeing built aircraft like The Episcopal Church does theology, the world would be glad that nothing ever got off the ground. 911 would be a microcosm of disasters occurring all over the country. The Law of Non-contradiction specifically prohibits Jefferts Schori from drawing up plans on building a Dreamliner using one of her sermons as an architectural drawing.

The Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop, said in the same release that "we are celebrating the fact the Episcopal Church recognizes that God doesn't differentiate between the gifts of men or women, lay or ordained. We want people to know who we are and to make their own, informed decisions."

People (especially still those in The Episcopal Church) are making their own "informed decision" and many are leaving TEC. They are concerned that their souls' salvation might be at stake by staying and they certainly do not want to expose their sons and daughters to such aberrant teaching.

Rudig called the ad campaign an important tool "in our efforts to tell our own story," while Robertson said "we want to be bolder and more proactive about letting people know that the Episcopal Church has so much to offer."

"Our message continues to be that we welcome you into this adventurous life and reasonable faith in Christ...whoever 'you' may be," Robertson said.

First of all, the story TEC is telling isn't being bought by anyone and you won't find it on Facebook or Kindle. The real story is how TEC became America's first openly gay denomination and how no one is running to pack the churches -- including gays.

You also have to wonder about the meaning of the word "reasonable". I'm sure all the martyrs of the church laid down their lives for a "reasonable" faith, a belief that the Atonement is child abuse, Spong's doctrine of the resurrection or the impossibility of the Virgin Birth might well be classified as "reasonable" and Gene Robinson's take on moral behavior might also be deemed "reasonable" as well. But would you die for it? Would a Cranmer or a Ridley lay down their lives for this kind of "reasonableness?"

The Joint Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism, which states the Episcopal Church "may be in systemic decline" (Blue Book, Page 103), asked for the Office of Mission and the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism to initiate a national consultation on methods and strategies to identify best practices to reverse the decline.

The Episcopal Church's hopeful sermons by Jefferts Schori and old and new ad campaigns are doing nothing to reverse the decline, because TEC bishops have no life giving news to save souls. Saving the planet before we offer the joy of saving people from their sins is to put the cart before the horse.

As Anglican preacher/teacher John R.W. Stott once observed, "Evangelism is the major instrument of social change. For the gospel changes people, and changed people can change society." That's a lesson Episcopal Church leaders seem not to want to learn -- now or ever.

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