Before her ordination into the priesthood in 1994, Jefferts Schori earned a doctorate in oceanography. She learned to build from a hypothesis, test alternatives and weigh perspectives before drawing final conclusions.
That scientific approach has helped Jefferts Schori, the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church's first female presiding bishop, maintain her composure amid increasing tension over the church's elevation of a gay bishop. It also helps her balance all the competing claims on her time.
Jefferts Schori will dedicate the new Episcopal Church Center of Utah in downtown Salt Lake City today, as well as preach in a special, celebratory service at St. Mark's Cathedral next door. She also wais scheduled to meet with the LDS Church First Presidency and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
"We understand our mission as reconciling the world to God in Christ," she said in an interview. "That means peacemaking, working toward social justice, and healing human beings in their psyche, souls and physical bodies."
The Episcopal Church is the largely U.S. wing of the 80 million-member Anglican Communion, a group of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England. Women bishops are still rare - only 15 out of 300 - in the Anglican Communion, she said, but are slowly, haltingly having more influence.
The ecumenical impulse of the past 30 years seems to have faded somewhat, or moved in a different direction, but it is not entirely dead.
The Episcopal Church now has full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which means that priests and pastors of each can exchange pulpits, and the church is working toward a similar arrangement with the United Methodist Church.
However, one issue continues to divide Anglicans among themselves: the 2003 ordination of New Hampshire's Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a committed relationship. Some congregations already have pulled out of the denomination, including the entire Nigerian Diocese, to voice their objections.
Ultimately, Jefferts Schori does not believe the Anglican Communion will splinter over it.
"It's a very, very small part of this church, less than 1 percent, that sees this of sufficient concern to want to leave over it," she said. "Our job is to bless their going and reassure them our door is always open and that we'll keep the light on for them."
Those remaining need to keep talking about issues such as sexuality, even when they disagree.
Jefferts Schori takes her lead from the "Elizabethan Settlement" of Britain's Queen Elizabeth I, which said the country's Christians didn't have to believe exactly the same thing but they had to worship together.
"That's still one of our central tenets," Jefferts Schori said. "We see sexual issues in the same light but the particular context may require a different focus."
In the developing nations, such as Nigeria, Anglicans are more interested in life and death issues, she said, while those in the developed world also can focus on broader social issues such as fair treatment of homosexuals.
"We see that as one of the fundamental tasks of the church - to help us all live holy lives," she said. "The challenge comes because there are different understandings of what that means."
To Jefferts Schori, the larger challenges include rampant consumerism, environmental change, and growing polarization in society.
The Episcopal Church supports the United Nations' millennial goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, and to reduce child mortality, among others.
"We don't just live separate from the world, we live in the world," she said. "Part of our task is to educate people on how to become effective citizens."
