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COLUMBUS,OH: Central Florida Welcomes Schori with Open Arms
6/20/2006
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada, was elected on the sixth ballot this afternoon. I have known her for the past five years, and interestingly enough, we sit side by side at our round table in the House of Bishops during this Convention. This noon, at lunch, between the third and the fourth ballot, we found ourselves having nowhere else to sit except at a table for two. (Nice conversation about our families.)
What can I tell you about her? She is an extremely gracious person with a truly brilliant mind. She is a marine biologist (PhD), with a very laid back personality. She is married to a retired professor of mathematics. They have a daughter who is a pilot in the Air Force. (Katherine herself is a pilot with instrument certification.)
She led the voting on every ballot except the second, when she tied with Henry Parsley of Alabama.
She "wowed" the nominating subcommittee that visited her in Nevada, and she pretty much "wowed" the Bishops last March at our meeting in Kanuga.
My concerns are that her experience is quite limited. She has never been a rector; she has been a Bishop only five years; and her diocese is very small. Many parts of the Communion will have difficulty in accepting her on the basis of gender. She voted to confirm the election of the Bishop of New Hampshire at the last General Convention.
Nevertheless, I have promised her my support, and I have asked her to visit Central Florida at her earliest convenience.
I wish her well, and I hope you will too.
--The Right Rev. John W. Howe is Bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida
