First female primate in the Anglican Church

The Right Reverend Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, 52, Bishop of Nevada, one of the smallest dioceses in the United States, a bishop for only five years of the decade that she has been ordained priest, beat six male bishops on the fifth ballot for the position of Presiding Bishop of the United States, which she will hold for nine years. The new Bishop who will succeed the Most Reverend Frank Griswold, will be installed at the National Cathedral in Washington, in November.

In an immediate response to the Anglican Outlook newspaper, Diocesan Bishop Calvin Bess responded: “I don’t see a difficulty with it. Since Bishops come from among the priests there is no logical reason for women not going on to the episcopate.” Bishop Bess said that this province has been asking the dioceses for responses on the issue of women in the episcopate and the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago sees no objection. And remarked: “It is just a matter of time.”

It is reported in the Man-chester Guardian/ACNS that the result of Bishop Schori’s election will have implications not only for the unity of the US Episcopal Church, but also for the Anglican Communion around the world, already threatened with a split over homosexuality. It will also affect the church’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church which has declared the impossibility of women serving even as priests and has warned the Church of England recently that its discussions would be damaged if it moves to promote women to the episcopate. It has potentially explosive repercussions within the Church of England itself, whose own bishops have been mulling over how to find a mechanism for its women clergy to become bishops.

Bishop Dr Schori, who trained as a scientist and formerly worked as an oceanographer with the US National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, is also a trained and active pilot.

Many of the new Bishop’s American peers made statements opposing her appointment at the 75th General Convention of the US Church in Ohio, the day after her June 18 election. Bishop Jack Iker and the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, appealed in good faith to the Archbishop of Canterbury for “alternative primatial oversight with immediate effect.” Bishop Iker said “the vast majority of Anglicans have not accepted the concept of the ordination of women as bishops and the vast majority of Catholic Christians around the world don’t accept women’s holy orders at all.”

Although The Diocese of Central Florida did not share Fort Worth’s theological belief that God has not called women to ordained orders, Central Florida stood in solidarity with Fort Worth’s decision. The Bishop of Quincy called for Anglo-Catholics to hold fast and not leave the Episcopal Church over the election of a female Presiding Bishop. The Bishop of Pittsburgh’s greatest concern is Bishop Dr Schori’s teaching: “She is a bishop who teaches and acts precisely contrary to Windsor. That is going to make collegiality within the Primates’ Meeting very difficult.” Other observers fear the election of a female primate will stress the already fragile state of affairs within the Anglican Commu-nion.

However, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, head of the world’s Anglican Communion, has sent his good wishes to Bishop Katharine “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.”