Election of Woman Bishop Puts Domestic, Global Strains on Episcopalians

c. 2006 Religion News Service COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The Episcopal Church’s election of the world’s first female primate on Sunday (June 18) threatens to tear the church apart and move it further from the worldwide Anglican Communion, conservative leaders here said Monday. Elected by a majority of Episcopal bishops and enthusiastically confirmed by lay and […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The Episcopal Church’s election of the world’s first female primate on Sunday (June 18) threatens to tear the church apart and move it further from the worldwide Anglican Communion, conservative leaders here said Monday.

Elected by a majority of Episcopal bishops and enthusiastically confirmed by lay and clergy delegates, Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, 52, will officially become the American church’s presiding bishop in November.


Her election comes as church delegates here are trying to respond to demands from Anglican leaders that the church stop ordaining gay bishops for now and cease blessing same-sex unions.

Many here hailed Jefferts Schori’s elevation to the 2.2 million-member church as a sign of the church’s progressive and sometimes pioneering leadership. But for conservatives, who are still fuming over the ordination of an openly gay bishop in 2003, it was yet another example of the church’s drift from Scripture and from other provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Leaders from the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, including Bishop Jack Iker, took to the floor of the convention Monday to ask for “alternative Primatial oversight … following the election” of Jefferts Schori.

“The fact that her ordination as a bishop is not recognized or accepted by a large portion of the Communion introduces an additional element of division and impairment,” Iker said in a separate statement.

Iker’s proposal seeks to place him and his diocese under the guidance of an overseas bishop in the Anglican Communion, which counts the Episcopal Church as its U.S. branch.

The request will likely be considered by a special commission set up by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to broker church disputes. If Fort Worth’s request is granted, it would become the first U.S. diocese under the direct oversight of a foreign prelate.

Fort Worth is one of three Episcopal dioceses that does not ordain women. The others are Quincy, Ill., and San Joaquin, Calif. Of the 38 provinces in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, only three _ the U.S., Canada and New Zealand _ have female bishops.


Some conservative groups, like the Anglican Communion Network, a group of 10 dioceses and some 900 parishes, say they object to Jefferts Schori because she approved same-sex blessings in her diocese while bishop of Nevada and voted to consecrate an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire.

“The election of (Bishop) Jefferts Schori illustrates the fact that two churches exist under one roof with irreconcilable differences,” said a statement from the conservative American Anglican Council.

Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana, who was a candidate for presiding bishop, said Fort Worth’s request is a “very interesting idea” that “deserves further conversation.”

“One problem with my church in this country is that we’re trying to be too close,” Jenkins said. “Like in any relationship, or a family, it can be destructive if you’re too close.’

The Rev. David Anderson, head of the Anglican American Council, “guaranteed” that Fort Worth’s request would be granted. He said it’s only a matter of time before Quincy and San Joaquin make similar moves.

“The Episcopal Church is breaking apart,” Anderson said. “And the election of Bishop (Jefferts) Schori is a part of that breaking apart.”


Reaction from around the worldwide Anglican Communion was mixed. Williams, who is the symbolic head of the Communion, sent Jefferts Schori his “prayers and good wishes as she takes up a deeply demanding position at a critical time.”

But Williams also said “her election will undoubtedly have an impact on the collegial life of the Anglican Primates” and “brings into focus” the strain it will place on ecumenical relations with churches that do not recognize the ordination of women.

Indeed, U.S. Catholic officials reacted warily to Jefferts Schori’s election, and echoed recent Vatican signals to Williams’ Church of England that allowing women bishops would lead to a “long-lasting chill” in Anglo-Catholic relations.

The Rev. James Massa, the chief ecumenical officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops wish Jefferts Schori “much success in her ministry,” but said her election “underscores one of the points of division” between the Catholic and Episcopal churches.

“It’s hard to find a silver lining in this,” he said.

Two weeks ago, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s point man on ecumenical issues, warned that Anglicans’ consideration of women bishops “would lead not only to a short-lived cold but to a serious and long-lasting chill” in Anglican-Catholic relations.

Massa said relations that were already complicated by Robinson’s election will likely be severely tested by having a woman in the top spot of the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.


“We will continue the dialogue with the Episcopal Church,” he said. “They are our colleagues and our friends, but we can’t help but see all of these developments in a context of deepening division.”

KRE/JL END BURKE

_ Adelle M. Banks contributed to this report from Washington.

Editors: To obtain a file photos of Schori, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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