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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The first woman in Anglican history to head a national church has pushed the envelope all her life.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, 52, is an instrument-rated pilot, rock climber and biologist who was an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle before her church career.
But her supporters for the post of 26th national presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, such as the Rev. Ian Douglas of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, say it's her ability "to listen with an open heart and open mind" that makes her the best choice for a fractured church.
Her selection brought cheers from 1,000 clergy and lay leaders and crowds of visitors at the governing conference's House of Deputies. Her husband, Richard, and daughter Johanna, 24, an Air Force 2nd lieutenant, also were on hand.
A tall woman with a shy smile, Jefferts Schori arrived Sunday afternoon to a tumultuous welcome and said, in English and Spanish, that she was "awed and honored."
The Rev. Susan Russell, head of the Episcopal gay and lesbian organization Integrity, said she is thrilled with the selection. Jefferts Schori supported allowing priests to bless same-sex unions in the diocese of Nevada and in 2003 voted to affirm the choice of the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The election may be divisive in the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, where only three -- the USA, New Zealand and Canada -- of 38 national and regional churches, known as provinces, accept women as bishops.
Asked about that, Jefferts Schori said that "face to face, human beings build relationships." She recalled that 30 years ago, "I was the chief scientist on an oceanographic cruise, and the captain would not talk to me because I'm a woman. He got over it in about 15 minutes."
Jefferts Schori told a magazine, The Witness, that what she values most in the Episcopal Church is "its historic ability to live with diversity and to celebrate that diversity. ... Some see that as a mighty sin, but I see it as one of the gifts of the creator. To be created in the image of God doesn't mean just one thing."
She has a biology degree from California's Stanford University and says homosexuality is "a given characteristic, not chosen."
The former dean of the Good Samaritan School of Theology in Corvallis, Ore., Jefferts Schori was ordained deacon and priest in 1994. She became bishop of the 6,000-member Nevada diocese in 2001. One of the 35 congregations in the diocese refused to accept the sacraments from her.
The American Anglican Council calls her unacceptably "revisionist." She is "clearly committed to a new consensus in the Communion that embraces progressive, revisionist theology," council releases say.
On Sunday, Eddie Blue, a lay delegate from Maryland, rose to object to Jefferts Schori's selection. Blue said the U.S. church, in pushing through a woman and a liberal, was "imperialist." Blue lamented "the peculiar genius that our church has for roiling the waters."
*A historic decision, 1A
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