Risk taker or rift maker?
By RACHEL ZOLL, The Associated Press
Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006

Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori thought the odds she would be elected to lead The Episcopal Church were “ridiculous” - absolutely against her.

“I was a woman, fairly young, I hadn’t been a bishop all that long, and I was serving a diocese that’s not part of the Eastern establishment,” the 52-year-old Jefferts Schori said.

Then came the surprise – she won anyway, in balloting at the Episcopal General Convention this June. Jefferts Schori was installed Nov. 4 as presiding bishop at the Washington National Cathedral, becoming the first woman priest to lead a national church in the nearly 500-year-old Anglican Communion.

“The Bible is full of stories of the younger son being called and the outsider being called,” by God to serve, Jefferts Schori said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “I think courage is a central characteristic of leadership. If you’re not willing to go into dangerous places, you have no business doing this work.”

The perils for anyone leading The Episcopal Church right now are considerable.

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