Leading an Embattled Church

NEW YORK -- Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori thought the odds that she would be elected to lead the Episcopal Church were "ridiculous" -- absolutely against her.

"I was a woman, fairly young, I hadn't been a bishop all that long, and I was serving a diocese that's not part of the Eastern establishment," the 52-year-old Jefferts Schori said.

Then came the surprise: She won anyway, in balloting at the Episcopal General Convention in June. Today, Jefferts Schori will be installed as presiding bishop at Washington National Cathedral, becoming the first female priest to lead a national church in the nearly 500-year-old Anglican Communion.

"The Bible is full of stories of the younger son being called and the outsider being called" by God to serve, Jefferts Schori said. "I think courage is a central characteristic of leadership. If you're not willing to go into dangerous places, you have no business doing this work."

The perils for anyone leading the Episcopal Church right now are considerable.

The 2.4 million-member denomination is at the center of a worldwide Anglican feud over how to interpret what the Bible says about sexuality and other issues. Though Jefferts Schori unapologetically supports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, she also defends a moratorium on those actions. In 2003, she voted to confirm New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. The uproar over his consecration is threatening to split the Anglican family, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch.

"I'm clear about this role involving the entire breadth of the Episcopal Church," Jefferts Schori said. "But at some level, I don't think it's appropriate for me to disguise what my own theological understanding is. I'm someone who believes transparency is incredibly important. It's part of integrity."

Yet the bishop also is aware that compromise is necessary to heal the rift with overseas Anglicans -- a goal she says is important to her. She believes Episcopalians should fulfill the request of Anglican leaders that the U.S. church stop consecrating gay bishops for now and refrain from developing an official prayer service to bless same-sex couples.

"There's a piece of me that is very sad that we need to do that," she said, "but there's a piece of me that understands that for the health of the larger body, we might have to do that for a season."

Having served just five years as a bishop, Jefferts Schori knows her experience in the church may seem too brief for such an important job. But she has spent her life tackling outsized challenges.

She is an oceanographer who graduated from Stanford University and earned a doctorate at Oregon State, working at sea with boat captains more accustomed to all-male research crews.

A pilot with more than 500 hours logged, she flew her plane to visit parishes in the sprawling Nevada Diocese. She also rock climbs with her husband of more than 25 years, Richard Schori, a theoretical mathematician and retired university professor. Their daughter, 25-year-old Katharine Johanna, is a pilot in the Air Force.