New Episcopal Church head says dissent limited
Fri Nov 3, 2006
By Michael Conlon, Religion Writer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Episcopal Church will not abandon its support for diversity and those threatening a schism over gay issues are a small segment of the membership, the incoming head of the U.S. church said on Friday.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, who will become the first woman to head a branch of the worldwide Anglican Church when she is installed at Washington's National Cathedral on Saturday, also said the fact that she is a woman has added fuel to the fires of division in the church.

Asked during an interview aired on the NBC-TV "Today" show how she hoped to reach conservative dissidents in the 2.4 million-member U.S. church, she said she would "reach out, trying to accompany them in their pain, to say that I understand how difficult this change is being for you, and to say that we're not going to abandon anyone. The rest