In the decade since she passed the Presiding Bishop’s crozier to Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has maintained a busy schedule of ministry, teaching, dedication to the Episcopal Church, and taking care of her family.
“I don’t like boredom,” she said with a laugh. “People have asked and mostly I said yes.”
When Jefferts Schori left the office of Presiding Bishop in 2015, she was years away from the mandatory retirement age of 72. She was elected the 25th Presiding Bishop at the 75th General Convention on June 18, 2006, in Colombus, Ohio. Before then she served as the Bishop of Nevada.
Her post-PB years have been quite active—assisting in three dioceses, teaching at Episcopal and secular institutions, showing support for deacons, all proving her commitment to the church.
Most recently she served as the Provisional Bishop in the Diocese of Wyoming.
“Wyoming came out of left field, but it was a wonderful experience,” she said. “The congregations are wonderful, and they are the whole range—politically, theologically—but they are very rooted people. They live in their context.”
Wyoming kept her busy. “I got around to all the congregations in about six months. I did the ordinations and confirmations and things like that that hadn’t been done in over a year.”
Before her time in Wyoming, she served two other dioceses. “Before I took on Wyoming, I had agreed with Bishop John Taylor [Diocese of Los Angeles] that I would do about a dozen visits. I might be willing to do more.”
She was an Assisting Bishop of San Diego “for about two years, and then [Bishop] Susan Snook took over and that was great.”
Jefferts Schori was a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University and its Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. She also taught at two Episcopal seminaries—Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Virginia Theological Seminary. “Right after I finished the Presiding Bishop work, I went to Virginia in the spring and in the fall to CDSP.”
She was glad to instruct on a favorite topic. “I taught clergy what they needed to know about science. We had great fun.”
She shows her support for deacons as an active member of the board of the Association for Episcopal Deacons.
She has also served in global roles for the Anglican Communion.
“I have been the coach for all the female bishops in Wales,” she said. “It’s been a wonderful experience. Four of them. It’s been remarkable to have 50 percent and more female bishops in a province. They have the same kinds of challenges as we do in terms of changing norms in what happened and what has taught us in the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, it was very odd to go on Zoom and lead a liturgy,” she said. “I really wrestled with that.”
But, she added, “It has been an incredible gift to people, even as the pandemic is behind. People gather on Zoom from very far away. It makes us more interconnected.”
Like others during the pandemic, she was “mostly at home. A few airplane trips with masks that were pretty obnoxious.”
But there were lessons learned during the pandemic. “I have been amazed the ways in which local congregations discovered needs in their communities and did something about it.”
She cited some local ministries by small congregations in Wyoming, such as holiday donations, building sheds filled with clothing and furniture, and “the kinds of things people need when there has been some difficulty.
“The need for food and shelter is immense in rural areas. People do remarkable work in terms of trying to fill those needs.”
Jefferts Schori believes small congregations “are the grassroots, and I think ministry works in those small communities, where people can themselves say ‘This is what we know needs to happen’ rather than the overarching structure that decides.”
She added: “People are people and almost all of them are gifted and caring for those around them. The vast majority are caring people.”
Another priority for her and her husband, Dick, is to visit their daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren in Oregon.
Jefferts Schori offered advice for clergy and lay leadership: “That we’re here to serve. That’s the basis of what it means to be a faithful person. We are here to care for our neighbors and to love one another and to share what we have and to keep discovering what is needed out there.”
Her message for the Episcopal Church is clear. “Keep on keeping on. Love Jesus. Love your neighbor. That’s the grounding of what it is to be a faithful person.”
Neva Rae Fox is a communications professional with extensive Episcopal experience, serving the boards of The Living Church Foundation, Bible and Common Prayer Book Society, Episcopal Community Services of New Jersey, and others.
