"Each and every one of you is a shepherd," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told nearly 150 parishioners, the Welcome Table choir and homeless men and women gathered to participate in the April 25 Welcome Table service at Epiphany, D.C. 

The Presiding Bishop was visiting Epiphany as part of an April 22-25 visit to the Diocese of Washington. During her time here, she also visited the Pre-K class at the Bishop John T. Walker School’s current site in Anacostia, toured the school’s new facility in Congress Heights, and stopped in at the St. Philip’s Child Development Center and the National Cathedral School.
She met staff and program participants at Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington and the Transitional Housing Corporation and visited the Rosemount Center and Springvale Terrace, Seabury Resources for Aging’s new center.

She preached at St. George’s, Valley Lee in Southern Maryland, and took part in a morning service and discussion on the future of Afro-Anglican urban congregations at St. George’s, D.C.
She also preached in Spanish and English during a Eucharist and Latino celebration at St. Matthew’s, Hyattsville and at another bilingual service at St. John’s, Lafayette Square.
Though skies were overcast, Epiphany’s pews were filled with warmth and light. Jefferts Schori noted that "shepherds in the ancient world and even today do hard, dirty work.”

At one time in her native Nevada, she said, many of the shepherds were Basque.

"One hundred years ago, they came here from Europe to watch sheep, and they lived out there in the dirt in the desert for months and months on end," she said. "Today, those shepherds come from Peru and places south of us. They are still out there doing that kind of  hard work – making sure the sheep are not eaten by coyotes; that the mother sheep get help with their lambs; that they find pasture and clean water."

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, "is out there on the trail, doing the dirty work, inviting people to the table, to the feast, calling each one of us by name," she said.

"We need more good shepherds who are willing to go out there and invite everybody to the feast. We need more good shepherds in Congress. We need more good shepherds in schools. We need more good shepherds in the choir. We need more good shepherds on the streets. Each and every one of us is both a sheep and a shepherd.”  

Before Epiphany's 8 a.m. service, Jefferts Schori spent time with the parish's Bible study class and engaged a lively group of homeless men and women and other participants in Epiphany's Gospel Art! program, where she accepted drawings. She also spent time in the kitchen, serving breakfast to nearly 100 homeless people and parishioners and spoke with a group of homeless men, answering questions about her family and how she became a bishop.

She arrived at Epiphany early in the morning, after preaching in Spanish and English the previous evening at St. Matthew’s, Hyattsville about what is needed to build up a community of faith. She spoke about the Gospel of John and how the church community at that time had begun to experience conflict and division.

“We see the same thing today, when people leave a faith community,” she said, and when remaining members behave ungraciously toward those who leave. “It is an equal opportunity curse, but it is not the way of Christ. If we’re going to follow Christ, we need to love everyone.

“May we look for Jesus everywhere, among friends and among enemies,” she concluded.

Teresa Hobgood is a member of Epiphany, D.C., and serves on the Welcome Table Ministry Team. Lucy Chumbley contributed to this report.