General Convention 2006  |  Anglican/Episcopal News

Jefferts Schori becomes Presiding Bishop-Elect in Historic GC Election
By Karen A. Keely
Monday, June 19, 2006
 

The Election

Jefferts Schori had been presumed by many to be a dark horse candidate, but in fact she led the voting in the House of Bishops on the very first ballot, followed by the Right Reverend Henry N. Parsley, Jr. (with 44 and 36 votes respectively, out of the 95 votes needed to elect). In the second ballot, Jefferts Schori and Parsley were tied at 49 votes, and then Jefferts Schori was in the lead for the last three ballots. The balloting stopped once she had received the required number of votes for election.

Of the bishops' election, Bishop George Councell of New Jersey stated that "The process from my point of view was very godly and very prayerful. … Many, many people have remarked on the almost palpable sense of the Holy Spirit working through us. … God has really answered our prayers."

Once the House of Bishops had reached its decision, the announcement of the election was made to the House of Deputies; testimony then occurred in the House for almost half an hour preceding the vote to concur. The first to speak, moving for concurrence, was Marge Christie, long-time deputy, past president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus, and at this General Convention recipient of the Witness's Vida Scudder award; Christie was very active in the original movement for women's ordination and spoke joyful words of praise for Jefferts Schori.

Her vision of the reign of God is that "the poor are fed, the poor have good news preached to them, those who are ostracized or in prison are welcomed and set free, the blind have their sight restored, and the ill are healed."

Also speaking from the floor in favor of concurrence was Blanca Lucia Echeverry, who praised Jefferts Schori for her extensive knowledge of the Latin world. Echeverry is, as she pointed out, the wife of one of the candidates, the Right Reverend Francisco Duque-Gomez from Columbia, but concluded that she was delighted with the choice of Jefferts Schori as the next Presiding Bishop. In addition, Bonnie Anderson, who has been elected as the next President of the House of Deputies, spoke in favor of concurrence and also asked that the House of Deputies honor all seven candidates for Presiding Bishop.

Almost all of the testimony was in favor of concurrence with the election. The President of the House of Deputies, the Very Reverend George L. W. Werner, asked three different times if any deputies wanted to speak against concurring with the election, but the only deputy who did so was Eddie Blue of the Diocese of Maryland, who said that this action would further strain the Anglican Communion and that "we seem to be acting as imperialists, as we often do, in carrying forth a woman whose gifts are not apparent to me, at least in respect to this office."

In the midst of the testimony, a deputy from the Diocese of Central Florida rose to ask that the vote be by orders, which requires the clergy and lay deputies in each diocesan deputation to vote separately; that is, each deputation produces two votes, one from the ordained and one from the lay deputies. In each diocesan deputation, there are four clergy and four laypeople, and the votes are counted as "yes" (if the clergy or laypeople have three or four "yes"es), as "no" (if there are three or four "no"s), or "divided" (with two "yes"es and two "no"s). Only "yes" votes count toward concurrence; "no" and "divided" votes count against concurrence.

With 108 dioceses voting, the House of Deputies concurred by an overwhelming majority to Jefferts Schori's election. For the lay deputations, there were 93 "yes" votes, 8 "no" votes, and 7 "divided" votes; for the clergy deputations, there were 94 "yes" votes, 10 "no" votes, and 4 "divided" votes. Once the House of Deputies had concurred, the House of Bishops certified the election, and Jefferts Schori was officially the Presiding Bishop-elect. She will take up her duties on November 1 and will be invested and seated on November 4 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Jefferts Schori's Vision for Her Ministry and the Church

The new Presiding Bishop-elect held a press conference shortly after her election was certified; she spoke of her own background, her ministry, and her vision for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion during her term.

	"My international experience has already been that, face to face, human beings build relationships, and that gender is much less of an issue than it is in the abstract."

Clearly the Millennium Development goals will be an ongoing focus of her work. She explained that her vision of the reign of God is that "the poor are fed, the poor have good news preached to them, those who are ostracized or in prison are welcomed and set free, the blind have their sight restored, and the ill are healed. One of the great actions of this General Convention has been to name justice and peace, particularly in the form of the Millennium Development goals, as the first priority of the Episcopal Church."

Jefferts Schori also spoke optimistically about her predictions for working relationships with other primates in the Anglican Communion. She noted, "My international experience has already been that, face to face, human beings build relationships, and that gender is much less of an issue than it is in the abstract." She recalled that thirty years ago, the first time she was chief scientist on an oceanic study, the ship's captain refused to speak to her because she is a woman; she said that this standoff lasted about 15 minutes, and then "we got over it." Jefferts Schori's first Primates' Meeting will be next February in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.

She sees herself and the Episcopal Church as having an active ministry of reconciliation. Speaking particularly of her work on the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, responding to the Windsor Report, she said that "Having the experience of sitting down face to face with a broad spectrum of viewpoints in the Episcopal Church over numerous days gave us the opportunity to build relationships with people who on the surface we might not choose to have relationships with. That kind of relational work, of reconciling work, is what this church is about."

She was asked particularly about the church's stance on homosexuality and said, "I believe that God welcomes all to his table, people who agree and people who disagree, and the Episcopal Church has always had a strong voice for including a variety of theologies, a variety of opinions and insisting that all the marginalized are most especially welcomed at the table."

On the subject of those within the Episcopal Church who are feeling alienated at this time, she responded, "Alienation is often a function of not knowing another human being. I think my witness needs to be about reconciliation. … I have good relations with almost every single member of the House of Bishops" -- a statement confirmed later by Bishop Chilton Knudsen of Maine who noted that members of the House of Bishops know Jefferts Schori well because of leadership she has taken in work of reconciliation and compromise, "helping us stay together as a House."

Jefferts Schori has a Ph.D. and worked as an oceanographer before her ordination. As she explained to the press yesterday, her original work in oceanography was studying "things that live in the sediment, in the mud"; much chuckling ensued as the gathered reporters imagined this statement working well as a metaphor for the work she might now be called to do in her new position, but she calmly continued to explain that she had then moved on to working on squids and octopuses in the northeastern Pacific. Her impressive intelligence has frequently been noted by those who have worked with her.

To her fellow nominees for Presiding Bishop: "You're not off the hook."

She is also multilingual, a fact that has been repeatedly mentioned as one of her assets in leading the increasingly diverse Episcopal Church. Although some have criticized the fact that she has only been a bishop for five years and in a relatively small diocese, Bishop Knudsen today praised Jefferts Schori's work in the Diocese of Nevada as giving her strong experience in using limited resources to help as many people as possible. Knudsen also said that the bishops collectively saw in Jefferts Schori "a centeredness, a prayerfulness, a groundedness, and a courage, that make it clear that she is a faithful and holy woman," noting also that bishops have been impressed by her intelligence, articulateness, and ability to speak pastorally to people on multiple sides of issues.

Bishop Councell also told the press that, immediately after her election, Jefferts Schori had publicly thanked and praised her fellow nominees for the Presiding Bishop position and had then jokingly warned, "you're not off the hook," which he praised as indicative of her collaborative style of leadership.

Responses to the Election

Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, spoke over telephone with Jefferts Schori this morning to congratulate her on her election. He also released a statement: "I send my greetings to Bishop Katharine and she has my prayers and good wishes as she takes up a deeply demanding position at a critical time. She will bring many intellectual and pastoral gifts to her new work, and I am pleased to see the strength of her commitment to mission and to the Millennium Development Goals. Her election will undoubtedly have an impact on the collegial life of the Anglican Primates; and it also brings into focus some continuing issues in several of our ecumenical dialogues. We are continuing to pray for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church as it confronts a series of exceptionally difficult choices."

Jefferts Schori will be the first woman leader of an episcopally ordered denomination, although women have led other mainline denominations. Last year Sharon Watkins was elected President and General Minister of the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), and just last week the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected Joan Gray as Moderator. In Canada, both the United Church in Canada and the Presbyterian Church have been led by women.

In the Anglican Communion, three provinces -- Canada; Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia; and the Episcopal Church -- have women bishops, and in addition women bishops are canonically permitted in eleven other provinces: Bangladesh, Brazil, Central America, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, North India, Philippines, Scotland, Southern Africa, and Sudan. Three of these primates -- Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada; Bishop Martin Barahona of El Salvador, Primate of the Anglican Church of the Central America; and the Most Reverend Carlos Touche-Porter, Primate of Mexico -- all spoke enthusiastically yesterday about working with Jefferts Schori as a fellow primate.

	Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams: "She will bring many intellectual and pastoral gifts to her new work, and I am pleased to see the strength of her commitment to mission and to the Millennium Development Goals. Her election will undoubtedly have an impact on the collegial life of the Anglican Primates."

Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana in Central Africa said of Jefferts Schori, "She is a servant of God, and we thank God for what she has to contribute to the life of the Anglican Communion. This is a great year for women, and we honor the role that women are playing in the world today."

The Reverend Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, spoke of the diversity of attitudes toward gender in the Anglican Communion. Last year the Church of England voted to remove legal obstacles to women's becoming bishops of its church, and the discussion of the theology of women bishops will continue at its General Synod next month in York, England.

Negative responses were also quickly forthcoming. This morning a statement from the Diocese of Forth Worth was read in the House of Bishops by Bishop Jack Iker and in the House of Deputies by Deputy Judy Mayo, asking the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Primates for "immediate alternative Primatial oversight and Pastoral Care" following the election. The Most Reverend Peter Akinola, Primate of Nigeria, is also expected to make a statement shortly.

Others noted approvingly that this election is in keeping with the Anglican Consultative Council's (ACC) resolution, adopted at its June 2005 meeting, acknowledging that the Millennium Development Goals call for equal representation of women in decision-making at all levels and calling on the ACC Standing Committee "to identify ways in which this goal may appropriately be adapted for incorporation into the structures of the Instruments of Unity." The Instruments of Unity are the Primates' Meeting, the Lambeth Conference, and the Anglican Consultative Council, and as Bishop Councell said this morning, with the election of Jefferts Schori, he was proud that there would now be women involved in all three Instruments of Unity.

[The Episcopal News Service contributed to this article.]

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Karen A. Keely is an English professor who has recently ended her vestry term at Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD. She may be reached at karen.keely@gmail.com.