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Will the Catholic Church recognize women's equality and have women priests and
a woman Pope
someday or will it continue to deny women equality while other denominations
progress? George
*******************************************************************
In historic vote, Episcopal Church elects female leader Episcopal Church
leaders chose Nevada
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as their leader Sunday, making her the first
woman to head any
denomination in the Anglican Communion worldwide .The full article will be
available on the Web
for
a limited time:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/religion/14852316.htm
(c) 2006 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
In historic vote, Episcopal Church elects female leader
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
Episcopal Church leaders chose Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as their
leader Sunday,
making her the first woman to head any denomination in the Anglican Communion
worldwide.
The decision to choose a female presiding bishop for the 2.3 million-member
denomination, 30 years
after the church first allowed women to become priests, might exacerbate
tensions between
Episcopalians and other branches of the Anglican church. Three years ago,
Episcopalians angered
many conservatives in the United States and abroad by electing an openly gay
man from New
Hampshire, Gene Robinson, as a bishop.
Jefferts Schori, 52, a graduate of Stanford University and a former
oceanographer, backed
Robinson's election. The runner-up for presiding bishop, Alabama Bishop Henry
Parsley, opposed
consecrating Robinson.
Before Robinson's consecration in 2003, no openly gay priest had become a
bishop in the Anglican
church, which extends back more than 450 years. Only the United States, Canada
and New Zealand
have female bishops, although some other provinces allow women to qualify for
the position. The
Church of England does not allow female bishops.
With outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold by her side, Jefferts Schori told
delegates to the
Episcopal General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday that she was ``awed
and honored and
deeply privileged to be elected.''
Jefferts Schori held out hope of mending any breaks that her election may cause.
``Alienation is often a function of not knowing another human being,'' she said
at a press
conference after her election. ``I have good relations with almost all the
other bishops, those
who agree and those who don't agree with me. I will bend over backward to build
good relations
with those who don't agree with me.''
Episcopal bishops elected Jefferts Schori on the fifth ballot. She collected 95
votes, with 93
others split between the rest of the field -- six candidates, all men.
Delegates shocked
The historic vote shocked many delegates at the convention, where they also
were debating whether
to temporarily halt the appointment of gay bishops to make amends with other
Anglican leaders.
The Rev. Jennifer Adams, who presides at Grace Episcopal Church, which is
deemed ``gay friendly''
by the Grand Rapids, Mich., branch of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays,
described Jefferts Schori at the convention as ``a woman of integrity,
consistency and faith. I
have no doubt her election as presiding bishop will be a gift to our church.''
The Rev. Ian Montgomery, minister at Palo Alto's All Saints Episcopal Church,
said he was
surprised at the selection of Jefferts Schori because she had not been
considered a front-runner
for the position.
Montgomery said the choice of a woman is likely to be accepted in the U.S.
church and within his
Peninsula congregation, but he worries about the implications internationally.
``My fear is our voice will not be heard because she will not be welcomed at
the table
internationally,'' Montgomery said. ``My fear is she won't have a place at the
table because she's
a woman.''
Some church delegates, including the Rev. Eddie Blue of Maryland, questioned
why Episcopalian
leaders chose Jefferts Schori.
He said the issue of female bishops is ``not settled'' within the Anglican
church. ``I thought
because of the other problems we were having with the rest of the communion,
this would damage our
relationship,'' Blue said.
But Blue's wife, Lucy Brady, a pastor in the United Church of Christ, said the
move reminded her
of 30 years ago when, as a divinity student in Rochester, N.Y., she heard bells
ringing on campus
to celebrate that the Episcopal Church's had approved women as priests.
``This is so exciting -- they've selected a woman!'' Brady said in a phone
interview from her home
in Baltimore. Brady noted that her church ordained the first female pastor in
the United States,
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, in 1850.
Pastor's path
Jefferts Schori said she began thinking about the ministry about 15 years ago
at the urging of
others in her parish in Oregon. In 1994, she received a master's of divinity
from the School of
the Pacific, in Berkeley, and she was ordained as a deacon of the Good
Samaritan Church in
Corvallis, Ore. Seven years later, she was elected bishop of the 6,000-member
Nevada diocese.
She is married with one daughter. She will be installed to her nine-year term
at a ceremony Nov.
4.
As presiding bishop, Jefferts Schori will represent the church in meetings with
other top Anglican
officials and other leaders of faith, but she will not have as much power as
some other religious
figures. Dioceses elect their own bishops, and the Episcopal General
Convention, which elected
Jefferts Schori, sets policy for the church.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercury News Staff Writer Howard Mintz, the New York Times and Associated Press
contributed to
this report.
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