Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MIAMI - As the first woman to serve as presiding bishop since the Episcopal Church approved women priests 30 years ago, Katharine Jefferts Schori is already facing a mutiny.
Jefferts Schori, who will be installed this weekend at the National Cathedral in Washington, starts her nine-year term during one of the most trying periods in the church's history. Rifts over church teachings on gays threaten to divide the 2.4 million-member denomination.
About 10 Episcopal dioceses have rejected her authority, arguing her support for same-sex blessings and the ordination of gay clergy runs counter to biblical morality. In her first sermon following her election at the church's general convention in June, Jefferts Schori angered the church's conservative wing by referring to "Mother Jesus."
And she faces more challenges abroad: Conservative bishops in the Anglican Church have pressured the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, to keep Jefferts Schori from attending the 2008 church-wide gathering.
But supporters say Jefferts Schori - an airplane pilot and former oceanographer - has the diplomacy skills needed to hold the church together.
"She's an incredible listener and a person of very deep faith," said the Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "She's not one to come to a quick conclusion, but from her training as a scientist, she will take in all the data that's presented."
Bishop Leo Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida said he believes Jefferts Schori will be able to broker a compromise between theological conservatives and liberals.
"She is of a liberal position, but I believe she's willing to listen to the center," Frade said. 'One thing we cannot allow is that people say, 'Well, she's not my primate.' She is the primate after this Saturday, like it or not."
In fact, about 10 percent of the country's 111 Episcopal dioceses have asked for alternative oversight from Anglican primates in other countries. While a handful of her detractors object to the ordination of women, others have said she is too liberal to lead a divided church, citing Jefferts Schori's authorization of same-sex blessings and her vote three years ago to confirm New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop to serve in the Episcopal Church.
"We believe her actions as a diocesan bishop call into question her ability to lead The Episcopal Church in the process of healing and restoration," the bishops of the diocese of Central Florida wrote in a June diocesan letter.
The rejectionist camp continues to grow, said the Rev. Sam Pascoe, rector of Grace Church (Anglican) in Orange Park, one of 14 parishes in northern Florida to leave the Episcopal Church over the ordination of gay clergy. Pascoe and his 500 parishioners now belong to an Anglican diocese in Rwanda, he said. Other parishes in the recently formed Anglican Alliance of North Florida have joined dioceses in Kenya, Uganda, Korea and Brazil, he said.
"She represents the theology we don't believe we can go along with," Pascoe said. "Her election just confirmed our fears."
Jefferts Schori said she was not surprised by the rancor. She has already met with the archbishop of Canterbury and hopes to reconcile with opposing bishops.
"It feels a bit un-Anglican to insist that we can't talk to each other," she said.
Jefferts Schori, 52, will have to draw on her varied experiences as a scientist, teacher and pastor to heal the church. She holds a master's in divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and a Ph.D. in marine biology from Oregon State University.
A former Roman Catholic whose family joined the Episcopal Church when she was 9, Jefferts Schori studied Pacific squid and octopus before entering the priesthood in 1994. She served in two parishes in Oregon and taught in the religious studies department of Oregon State University.
In 2001, she was ordained as bishop of Nevada, where she authorized the blessing of same-sex unions. She is married to a retired mathematician; they have a daughter who is a first lieutenant and pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
Despite the controversy caused by her election, many within the church have celebrated her election to the church's highest rank, becoming the first woman to lead a church body within the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Mary Gray-Reeves, an archdeacon with the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, said she is "still pinching" herself over the upcoming installation.
"She will certainly be a role model for all women clergy," Gray-Reeves said. "I'm very proud of our church and very proud of our house of bishops ... they chose someone they believed was best."
---
(c) 2006, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
