Fallon church leader praises Nev. female bishop's new national role

By David C. Henley

Publisher Emeritus

Members of Fallon's Holy Trinity Episcopal Church who will be celebrating their congregation's 100th anniversary in four months received an exciting and totally unexpected premature birthday present five days ago.

Word reached Holy Trinity members late Sunday that Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has headed the statewide Episcopal Diocese of Nevada since 2001, was elected presiding bishop of the country's 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church at the denomination's general convention in Columbus, Ohio.

"We're just overjoyed at the news of Katharine's election," The Reverend Deacon Gini Hart of Holy Trinity Church told me this week when I visited her at the church at the corner of Churchill and Fairview streets.

A frequent visitor to the church here since her election as Nevada's Episcopal bishop five years ago, Bishop Schori will return to Fallon the weekend of Oct. 1 to join 120 church members celebrating their 100th anniversary, as well as presiding over the Nevada Episcopal Church's annual convention to be held at the Fallon Convention Center.

"About 300 will be in attendance at the convention, and all will be congratulating Katharine for her election as our nation's presiding bishop. On Nov. 4, she will be installed in her new position at Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral," Hart said.

The election of Bishop Schori to lead the nation's Episcopalians, in which she defeated six male candidates, is historic in a multitude of ways, Rev. Hart said.

Bishop Schori, 52, not only is the first female bishop of Nevada, but she will be the first woman elected to head the national church. Only two other nations, New Zealand and Canada, have elected women to head their Episcopal or Anglican churches.

And three years ago, Schori voted to confirm the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Robinson's election shocked the Anglican world and has created rifts within U.S. Episcopalian ranks as well as Anglican communions throughout the world.

But Hart believes Schori's reputation as a "reconciler and loving listener" will help heal the wounds in the church and will halt the breaking-away of some conservative U.S. churches from the national organization.

"Katharine believes everyone is the child of God and that everyone is welcome at the table. She realizes people have different beliefs within our church, and she respects all views."

"At Holy Trinity Church here in Fallon, we're probably not ready yet for same-sex unions, but all are welcome at the church no matter their sexual orientation. What we should be stressing in the church is helping the poor and disenfranchised and the people in prisons. That's what Jesus did ... and look at the all the trouble he got into for doing this.

"We're not judgmental, we don't scare people, we don't hate. We love and accept everyone," she said.

Hart, who has been at Holy Trinity Church for nine years, said she faced anger and resentment from some Episcopal church members following her ordination 20 years ago.

"Women at that time were just beginning to enter leadership roles in the church, and there was a lot of prejudice towards them. Some people didn't want to take communion from me. But look at how things have changed in Nevada. We elected Katharine as our state's first female bishop five years ago and she's done a remarkable job," Hart said.

Schori also is a remarkable woman. The holder of a Ph.D. in oceanography and a former university professor, she flies her own airplane (a Cessna) to meet Episcopalians throughout the state, speaks fluent Spanish and received her divinity degree only 12 years ago.

Her husband, Richard, who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, also was a university professor, and their daughter is currently training to be a U.S. Air Force pilot. She is also named Katharine.

Schori, who succeeds Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, will hold her new position for nine years and will move with her family to New York City where the church's national headquarters are located, Hart stated.

Her job, Hart added, will be that of the denomination's chief pastor and preacher, liturgical leader and U.S. representative to the 77-million member Anglican Communion.

That sounds like a massive responsibility for Schori when compared with her current job of presiding over 37 Nevada churches with a membership of 6,000, but Hart says the new bishop is up to the task.

Schori, however, faces challenges in keeping her church's membership from further divisions. Like the Republican and Democratic political parties, the church has divided along liberal and conservative ideological lines, with many conservatives angry with the ordination of women and homosexuals and what they see as the deviation of some Episcopal church leaders who question the literal translation of the Bible.

Not only did Schori support the candidacy of gay New Hampshire Bishop Robinson, but she also supports the blessing of same-sex unions in Nevada. She'll face a substantial number of hostile church members when she becomes the national bishop in November, and will draw upon every diplomatic skill at her command to keep the church from splintering.

The national Presbyterian Church also has recently elected a female as its head, and she too is not opposed to sanctioning gay relationships. Perhaps Presbyterian leader Joan Gray, a Georgia minister, will join Schori in convincing their respective memberships that times are changing and that, as Hart says, "God loves everyone."