In
a year that has seen her presented an honorary degree from Oxford
University and invited to give the Second Annual C.S. Lewis Legacy
Lecture at Westminster College, the first woman in the history of the
United States Episcopal Church to become Presiding Bishop, Bishop
Katharine Jefferts-Schori, will deliver the inaugural David Booth
Beers Lecture on the Practice of Law at the University of California
Hastings School of the Law in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 5.
Her
11am lecture on Litigation and Suing Traditional Christians will be
held in the Louis B. Mayer Multipurpose Room in Snodgrass Hall and will
be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served
basis. Following the lecture, which was endowed by an anonymous donor
in honor of Bishop Schori's Chancellor, David Booth Beers, both
Bishop Schori and Mr. Beers, a 1960 graduate of the Hastings School
of the Law, will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters and Law
(Honoris Causa).
“We
are quite honored that the Presiding Bishop has accepted our
invitation to lecture,” said John Leshy, the Harry D. Sunderland
Distinguished Professor of Real Property Law. “Neither her divinity
degree nor her two graduate degrees in oceanography give her any
expertise on this subject, but she more than makes up for it in real
world experience suing both individuals and churches. Her track
record is, quite simply, unparallelled.”
Bishop Jefferts-Schori was an oceanographer before being ordained in 1994 and has continued to use her knowledge of invertebrates in dealing with the House of Bishops. She remains an active, instrument-rated pilot. Before her election as Bishop she was a priest and university lecturer but remarkably never had charge of a parish.
Bishop Jefferts-Schori was an oceanographer before being ordained in 1994 and has continued to use her knowledge of invertebrates in dealing with the House of Bishops. She remains an active, instrument-rated pilot. Before her election as Bishop she was a priest and university lecturer but remarkably never had charge of a parish.
The
Presiding Bishop is the Chief Ecumenical Officer of the Church and
Pastor and Primate of this national church with around 1.8 million
members claimed in the United States alone. The Presiding Bishop is
charged with responsibility for leadership in initiating, developing,
and articulating policy and strategy, overseeing the administration
of the national church staff, speaking for the church on issues of
concern and interest, and putting a stick to them and making them
jump.
