Katharine Jefferts Schori

Last updated

The Most Reverend

Katharine Jefferts Schori
26th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church
JeffertsSchori.JPG
Jefferts Schori during her term as Presiding Bishop (2010)
Church Episcopal Church
In office2006–2015
Predecessor Frank Griswold
Successor Michael Curry
Other post(s)Bishop Assisting of Los Angeles Diocese(2019-2024) Assistant Bishop of Wyoming (2024)
Previous post(s) Bishop of Nevada (2001-2006)
Orders
Ordination1994 (priest)
ConsecrationFebruary 24, 2001
by  Jerry Lamb
Personal details
Born (1954-03-26) March 26, 1954 (age 70)
Pensacola, Florida, United States
Denomination Episcopal
ParentsKeith Jefferts
Elaine Ryan
SpouseRichard Schori
ChildrenKatharine
Alma mater Stanford University
Oregon State University
Pacific Church Divinity School

Katharine Jefferts Schori (born March 26, 1954) is the former Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Previously elected as the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, she was the first woman elected as a primate in the Anglican Communion. Jefferts Schori was elected at the 75th General Convention on June 18, 2006, and invested at Washington National Cathedral on November 4, 2006, and continued until November 1, 2015, when Michael Bruce Curry was invested in the position. She took part in her first General Convention of the Episcopal Church as Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church in July 2009.

Contents

She is serving as Assistant Bishop of Wyoming in July 2024.

Early and family life

Of Irish and Swiss ancestry, Jefferts Schori was born in Pensacola, Florida to Keith Jefferts, an atomic physicist, and Elaine Ryan, a microbiologist. [1] Jefferts Schori was first raised in the Catholic Church. In 1963, her parents brought her, at the age of eight, into the Episcopal Church (St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, New Providence, New Jersey) with their own move out of Roman Catholicism. Her mother converted to Eastern Orthodoxy a few years later and died in 1998. [2]

Jefferts Schori attended school in New Jersey, then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Stanford University in 1974, a Master of Science degree in oceanography in 1977, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1983, also in oceanography, from Oregon State University. She is an instrument-rated pilot, and both her parents were pilots.

She married Richard Schori, an Oregon State professor of topology, in 1979; they have a daughter. [3]

Early career

Jefferts Schori earned her Master of Divinity in 1994 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific [4] and was ordained priest that year. She served as assistant rector to William R. McCarthy at the Church of the Good Samaritan, in Corvallis, Oregon, where she had special responsibility for pastoring the Hispanic community as a fluent Spanish communicator, and was in charge of adult education programs.

In 2001, Jefferts Schori was elected and consecrated Bishop of Nevada.

She was awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 2001, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 2007, and Sewanee: The University of the South in 2008.

In 2003, Jefferts Schori voted to consent to the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay and partnered man, [5] to which some conservative Episcopalians objected. [6]

Election as Presiding Bishop

Jefferts Schori in 2008 Katharine Jefferts Schori 2008-09-22 001.jpg
Jefferts Schori in 2008

The Episcopal Church met in General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006. Jefferts Schori was elected to serve a nine-year term as Presiding Bishop by the House of Bishops, on June 18, from among seven nominees on the fifth ballot with 95 of the 188 votes cast. The House of Deputies, consisting of deacons, priests and laity, overwhelmingly approved the House of Bishops' election later that day. Jefferts Schori was the first woman primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion and the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Although Jefferts Schori's election was an indication of widespread support in the Episcopal Church in the United States for ordaining women to the historical episcopate, the Diocese of Fort Worth, which opposed women in holy orders, asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to place the Diocese under the oversight of a different primate. [1] As not all churches in the Anglican Communion uphold the ordination of women, the election of a woman as primate also proved controversial in some other provinces.

At a news conference on June 18, 2006, the Presiding Bishop-elect articulated a willingness to work with conservatives. She expressed her hope to lead the church in the reign of God, rooted in imagery from Isaiah and including such United Nations Millennium Development Goals as eradicating poverty and hunger: "The poor are fed, the Good News is preached, those who are ostracized and in prison are set free, the blind receive sight."

Schori as presiding bishop in 2010 Katharine Jefferts Schori 2.jpg
Schori as presiding bishop in 2010

Jefferts Schori became Presiding Bishop on November 1, 2006, and her investiture was held on November 4 at Washington National Cathedral. [7] Her official seating was held the following day, also at the National Cathedral.

Jefferts Schori was the 963rd bishop consecrated in the Episcopal Church. She was consecrated by Jerry A. Lamb, Bishop of Northern California; Robert Louis Ladehoff, Bishop of Oregon; and Carolyn Tanner Irish, Bishop of Utah.

Presiding Bishop

In 2008, groups from four dioceses (Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, and San Joaquin) broke off to become part of the Anglican Church in North America as part of the Anglican realignment. [8] Jefferts Schori authorized lawsuits against departing dioceses and parishes, with $22 million spent as of 2011. [9] She also established a policy that church properties were not to be sold to departing congregations. [10]

Jefferts Schori supported same-sex relationships and of the blessing of same-sex unions and civil marriages. [11] Like her predecessor, she is a supporter of abortion rights, stating that "We say it is a moral tragedy but that it should not be the government's role to deny its availability." [11] She also supported the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate on birth control.[ citation needed ] In 2007, her church's blessing of same-sex marriage led 7 Anglican archbishops to refuse communion with her during a meeting in Tanzania. [12]

After her opening address to the 2009 General Convention, some within the church questioned her remarks regarding salvation, prompting a clarifying statement from her in the following week. [13] [14] In 2013, Jefferts Schori's sermon in Curaçao about Paul driving out a demon from a slave girl (Acts 16:16–34 ), drew criticism from conservative Christian websites for her interpretation. [15]

End of term

Jefferts Schori announced on September 23, 2014, that she would not seek another term as Presiding Bishop. [16] On June 27, 2015, the General Convention elected Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina as the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. [17]

From 2017 to 2019, Jefferts Schori was an assisting bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. [18]

Since 2019, Jefferts Schori is one of the assisting bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Anglican Communion Network was a theologically conservative network of Anglican and Episcopalian dioceses and parishes in the United States that was working toward Anglican realignment and developed into the Anglican Church in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Divinity School of the Pacific</span> Episcopal Church seminary in California, U.S.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) is an Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California. It is one of the nine seminaries in the Episcopal Church and a member of the Graduate Theological Union. The only Episcopal seminary located in the Far West, CDSP has, since 1911, been designated the official seminary of the Episcopal Church's Eighth Province, the Province west of the Rocky Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Duncan (bishop)</span> American Anglican bishop

Robert William Duncan is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) from June 2009 to June 2014. In 1997, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. In 2008, a majority of the diocesan convention voted to leave the diocese and the Episcopal Church and, in October 2009, named their new church the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. Duncan served as bishop for the new Anglican diocese until 10 September 2016 upon the installation of his successor, Jim Hobby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Griswold</span> American bishop (1937–2023)

Frank Tracy Griswold III was an American clergyman who served as the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Henry Nutt Parsley, Jr. is an American prelate of the Episcopal Church and the retired tenth Bishop of Alabama, and the former Provisional Bishop of the Diocese of Easton. Parsley is also a former Chancellor of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He now resides in Wilmington, North Carolina and attends St. James Parish in Wilmington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Quincy</span> Anglican diocese in the United States

The Anglican Diocese of Quincy is a member of the Anglican Church in North America and is made up of 32 congregations, principally in Illinois but also in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Hawai'i, Colorado, Tennessee, and Florida in the United States. The diocese was a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Nevada</span> Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Nevada is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the USA which comprises the entire State of Nevada. The eleventh and current bishop of the Diocese, The Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Bonforte Gardner, was ordained and consecrated by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry at Christ Church Episcopal in Las Vegas on March 5, 2022. On October 8, 2021, the Reverend Gardner was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.

Jerry Alban Lamb is a retired American bishop. He was the sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Maryland</span> Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland forms part of Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Having been divided twice, it no longer includes all of Maryland and now consists of the central, northern, and western Maryland counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington, as well as the independent city of Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Curry (bishop)</span> Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church from 2015 to 2024

Michael Bruce Curry is an American bishop who was the 27th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. Elected in 2015, he was the first African American elected to the role, having previously served as Bishop of North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. His tenure as presiding bishop ended on November 1, 2024, and he was succeeded by Sean Rowe.

In the United States, the history of the Episcopal Church has its origins in the Church of England, a church which stresses its continuity with the ancient Western church and claims to maintain apostolic succession. Its close links to the Crown led to its reorganization on an independent basis in the 1780s. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was characterized sociologically by a disproportionately large number of high status Americans as well as English immigrants; for example, more than a quarter of all presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians. Although it was not among the leading participants of the abolitionist movement in the early 19th century, by the early 20th century its social engagement had increased to the point that it was an important participant in the Social Gospel movement, though it never provided much support for the Prohibitionist movement. Like other mainline churches in the United States, its membership decreased from the 1960s. This was also a period in which the church took a more open attitude on the role of women and toward homosexuality, while engaging in liturgical revision parallel to that of the Roman Catholic Church in the post Vatican II era.

The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Quincy</span> Former diocese of the Episcopal Church in western Illinois

The Diocese of Quincy was a diocese of the Episcopal Church in western Illinois from 1877 to 2013. The cathedral seat was originally in Quincy, Illinois but was moved to St. Paul's Cathedral in Peoria in 1963. In order to avoid confusion with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, the diocese retained the name of the location of its original "home" city, Quincy, where its cathedral seat was St. John's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Glasspool</span> American Episcopal bishop (born 1954)

Mary Douglas Glasspool is an assistant bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. She previously served as a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles from 2010 to 2016. She is the first openly lesbian woman to be consecrated a bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Edward Harding "Ed" MacBurney SSC was an American Anglican bishop. He was born in Albany, New York to Alfred Cadwell MacBurney (1896-1986) and Florence Marion McDowell MacBurney (1897-1989). A graduate of Dartmouth College, Berkeley Divinity School, and St Stephen's House, Oxford, he was ordained to the priesthood in December 1952 by the Church of England Bishop of Ely Edward Wynn. He served in the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire at Trinity Episcopal Church, Hanover, from 1953 to 1973 before appointment as dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa from 1973 to 1987. MacBurney served from 1988 to 1994 as the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy. During the consents process following MacBurney's election, Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark "urged his fellow liberal bishops to encourage their diocesan standing committees to confirm Dean MacBurney's election for the sake of the catholicity of the Church."

William Carl "Bill" Frey was an American Episcopal bishop. He served as missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church for the Episcopal Diocese of Guatemala and later as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. He was an Evangelical and was considered a moderate theological conservative. He supported women's ordination but opposed active homosexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Martins</span> American Anglican bishop (born 1951)

Daniel Hayden Martins is an American Anglican bishop. He is the eleventh and former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield. He was consecrated to the episcopate on March 19, 2011. In October 2019, he announced plans to retire. He was succeeded by Brian K. Burgess as the twelfth Bishop of Springfield in 2022.

Diane M. Jardine Bruce is the Bishop Provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. She previously served as the seventh bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

Laura Jean Ahrens is an American prelate who currently serves as the Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut.

Edwin Funsten Gulick Jr., known as Ted Gulick, was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, and since 2011 has served as assistant bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, with special responsibility for pastoral ministry.

References

  1. 1 2 Banerjee, Neela (June 21, 2006). "For an Episcopal Pioneer, the Challenge Is to Unite". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  2. ↑ Carole Beers (April 7, 1998). "Obituaries: Elaine Ryan; To Her Life Was Just A Smorgasbord To Be Sampled". Seattle Times Newspaper.
  3. ↑ Presiding Bishop: Biography Archived 2011-07-02 at the Wayback Machine . Episcopalchurch.org (2001-02-24). Retrieved on 2010-11-25.
  4. ↑ "Presiding bishop candidates". Episcopal Life Archives. Archived from the original on April 20, 2009.
  5. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (February 21, 2007). "Many Episcopalians Wary, Some Defiant After Ultimatum by Anglicans". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  6. ↑ Davey, Monica (August 6, 2003). "Gay Bishop Wins in Episcopal Vote; Split Threatened". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Banerjee, Neela (November 5, 2006). "A Woman Is Installed as Top Episcopal Bishop". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  8. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (December 3, 2008). "Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group". New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  9. ↑ Hemingway, Mollie Ziegler. "Twenty-First Century Excommunication". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  10. ↑ Hagerty, Barbara Bradley (April 10, 2012). "A Church Divided: Ruling Ends Va.'s Episcopal Battle". National Public Radio . Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  11. 1 2 Kaleem, Jaweed (March 27, 2012). "Katharine Jefferts Schori, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop, Speaks About Gay Clergy And Birth Control, 27 March 2012". Huffington Post. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  12. ↑ LaFraniere, Sharon; Goodstein, Laurie (February 17, 2007). "Anglican Prelates Snub Head of U.S. Church Over Gay Issues". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  13. ↑ Kwon, Lillian (August 28, 2009). "Episcopal Head Clarifies 'Heresy' Comments". The Christian Post. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  14. ↑ Chemberlin, Peg (July 12, 2009). "Great Western heresy — that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God?". Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  15. ↑ Oppenheimer, Mark (June 21, 2013). "For Episcopal Church's Leader, a Sermon Leads to More Dissent". The New York Times . Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  16. ↑ Jefferts Schori, Katharine (September 23, 2014). "From Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori". EpiscopalChurch.org. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014. I recognize that standing for election as Presiding Bishop carries the implicit expectation that one is ready to serve a full term. I do not at present believe I should serve and lead in this ministry for another nine years.
  17. ↑ Schjonberg, Mary Frances (June 27, 2015), "North Carolina Bishop Michael Curry elected as 27th Presiding Bishop: History-making decision will bring first person of color into church's top leadership office", Episcopal News Service, The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, archived from the original on January 18, 2016, retrieved June 27, 2015
  18. ↑ "Katharine Jefferts Schori to be assisting bishop in San Diego". Episcopal Church. June 29, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2018.

Further reading

Episcopal Church (USA) titles
Preceded by Bishop of Nevada
2001–2006		Succeeded by
Preceded by Presiding Bishop
2006–2015		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.