Jefferts Schori calm in facing church controversies

By CAROL REEVES
Gazette-Times reporter

Katharine Jefferts Schori is like the eye of a hurricane — surprisingly calm in spite of the stormy winds of controversy swirling all around her.

Her election June 18 as the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States — the first woman ever nominated, much less chosen for such a post — cast her immediately under a global spotlight and positioned her as a lightning rod within the predominately conservative Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest church body.

Although a majority of the Communion’s 38 national churches allow for the ordination of women, just more than a third of them permit women to be bishops. In only three are women currently serving as bishops.

Besides the gender issue, critics say her theology is too liberal, particularly when it comes to human sexuality. She supports the ordination of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex marriages and was among those who voted in favor of installing the Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of the New Hampshire diocese in 2003.

Seven American dioceses and some individual churches have decided Jefferts Schori’s election proves the American church has no intention of backing away from what they believe is an unscriptural endorsement of homosexuality and are seeking oversight from other Anglican provinces overseas.

But in spite of these and other questions about her suitability as presiding bishop, Jefferts Schori seems totally at peace as she faces what could be a turbulent nine years at the helm of the Episcopal church.

In an interview Saturday afternoon after arriving to preach for the Corvallis congregation Sunday, she joked about a moment shortly after her election when she got a glimpse of what might be ahead.

She said Robinson was one of the first to congratulate her during the denomination’s triennial convention in Columbus, Ohio. Laughing, she said, “He came up to me and said ‘I feel so yesterday!’”

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For some detractors, it was just yesterday the 52-year-old bishop-elect entered Episcopal ministry — calling into question her ability to lead the 2.4 million-member denomination.

Jefferts Schori was ordained as a deacon, then a priest in 1994 at the Good Samaritan church. She served as the Corvallis congregation’s associate rector for seven years and then became bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada in 2001.

“I bring a different set of experiences to the job,” she said, in response to those who wish she had more pastoral experience. She cited her many years of active lay ministry — something she thinks the church too often ignores when it should be celebrated.

She went on to say the time she’s spent in Nevada taught her how to apply limited resources to unlimited problems and that “it takes a lot of creativity to mobilize the energies of a lot of people to move in the same direction.” Both are skills she believes to be necessary in her new job.

Finally, she credits her training as a scientist for the ability to look at the world differently and use a more objective approach to solving problems. An oceanographer before ordination, her research into environmental effects on organisms has helped her recognize how a person’s behavior and theology can be contextual as well.

“This is a season for asking hard questions and looking for nontraditional solutions,” Jefferts Schori said. “The issues we’re facing aren’t going to be resolved using the same approaches as before. More scientific, out-of-the-box approaches are needed.”

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Jefferts Schori says she’s surprised there has been so much focus on the fact a woman has been elected to lead the church when more than half of Episcopal congregations are made up of women. That’s not nearly as big of a shift as it was to decide whether or not women should be ordained in the first place, she suggested.

The Anglican Communion didn’t dissolve over that debate, and she hopes there won’t be irreparable damage from fallout over the homosexuality issue either.

“Anglicanism is not monochromatic. We have always placed a high value on being able to accept different viewpoints,” Jefferts Schori said.

There have been some “loud voices” since the 2003 convention critical of the decisions made there, she said, but “there have also been lots of quiet voices as well saying we may not agree but we can still work together.

“This is a distraction. It’s not the centerpiece of the gospel,” she continued, adding the primary mission of the church should be focused on such things as promoting peace and justice, eliminating poverty and hunger, making sure people have adequate sanitation, and treating people suffering with AIDS or other deadly diseases.

Confident these goals can be achieved by building partnerships and engaging in local endeavors in spite of theological differences, Jefferts Schori cited an example from the Nevada diocese where she will continue to serve until her investiture Nov. 4. Once in the new job, she will move to New York City.

She and the archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya disagree wholeheartedly about the issue of homosexuality and yet the Nevada diocese and the church there have partnered together to build a medical clinic in one town and drill wells to provide clean water to another.

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In February, Jefferts Schori will get her first chance to lobby for a spirit of cooperation during a meeting of the 38 international primates in Tanzania.

She wants to focus on getting to know the other primates and hopes they will be able to focus on what they share in common rather than their differences.

Although it didn’t make the news, Jefferts Schori said the recent Episcopal convention voted to make the Anglican Communion’s Millennium Development Goals its first priority over the next few years. The goals represent a strategy of working together to bring global development projects to impoverished countries, and she hopes that by calling attention to that decision, the other primates will see the American church is committed to remaining a part of the Communion.

“There are clearly some who are very unhappy with the American church and how we live out the gospel, but that ought not to be what divides us. The godly thing would be to focus on the things we can do together to transform the world,” she said.

IN HER WORDS

The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori’s thoughts on:

• The host of Internet blogs focused on her, many of which aren’t very flattering: “People have a tendency to caricaturize that which they don’t know. Face to face most human beings don’t jump to such rudeness. These are certainly people with passion and entering into conversation (face to face) with someone with that much energy can be terribly productive, but just lobbing bombs isn’t.”

• Reaching out to the bishops of those dioceses wanting foreign oversight: “I will do whatever I can to improve relationships with those bishops. It’s awkward because some see our theological disagreements as unfaithfulness. Others see it as part of our gift as Anglicans that we can hold different viewpoints.”

• The possible formation of another branch of Anglicanism within the United States: “It’s very sad to see members of your family leave. If it comes to that, our response (the Episcopal Church) should be to leave the light on and the door unlocked. We lose something without that diversity within the church.”

• How her graduate studies of “things that crawl in the mud” in OSU’s oceanography department relate to her current mission: “I have an appreciation of the diversity of creatures in the created world.”

AT A GLANCE

NAME: The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

AGE: 52

CURRENT POSITION: Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada

NEW POST: As of Nov. 4, will be presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion

PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE: Associate rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan; instructor in the department of religious studies at Oregon State University; visiting scientist in OSU’s Department of Oceanography; oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.

EDUCATION: B.S. in biology, Stanford University (1974); M.S. in oceanography, OSU (1977); Ph.D. in oceanography, OSU (1983); M.Div., Church of Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif. (1994); honorary D.D., Church of Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif. (2001)

FAMILY: Husband Richard Schori, a retired theoretical mathematician; one married daughter, Katharine Harris, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force living in Dayton, Ohio.

SPECIAL INTERESTS: Flying airplanes, jogging, backpacking.

Carol Reeves covers religion for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached by e-mail at carol.reeves@lee.net or by phone at 758-9516.