The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected Bishop of Nevada on the fourth ballot at the diocesan convention in Reno Oct. 13-15. She currently serves as assistant rector at the Church of the Good Samaritan, Corvallis, Ore.

"I am awed and humbled to have been chosen as your next bishop," she told the convention delegates. Her visit to convention was hastily arranged after her election on the first day of balloting.

"My prayer for you is that the Diocese of Nevada will be a welcoming presence, a community of caring, and a prophetic witness to justice for all who work and live in this beautiful state, and all who travel through it.

"My hope is that Nevada may once more become a beacon to the rest of the church in understanding baptism as the primary call to ministry. Nevada can be a model of the church as an empowering base for ministry, a community in which the baptized are fed, challenged, supported and educated for ministry in the world."

Bishop-elect Schori is 47. She is a graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and she holds a master's degree and a doctorate in oceanography from Oregon State University. She serves on the diocesan commission on ministry, and with Hispanic ministry and as a pastoral counselor at Benton Hospice Service.

She is married, and her husband Richard will join her in Nevada. They have one child. She will succeed the late Rt. Rev. Stewart Zabriskie.

Assuming required consents are obtained from the Episcopal Church's standing committees and House of Bishops, her consecration will be held in Las Vegas Feb. 24.

Three other candidates were nominated by the diocesan search committee. They were the Rev. David Fletcher, rector of the Parish of Lantz in Nova Scotia; the Rev. Richard Henry, regional vicar in the Diocese of Nevada; and the Rev. Alan Scarfe, rector, of St. Barnabas, Los Angeles.

In addition, three candidates were nominated from the floor: the Rev. Rand Frew, assisting priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; the Rev. Eric Funston, rector of St. Francis of Assisi, Stillwell, Kan., and the Rev. Lloyd Rupp, interim priest at St. Timothy's, Henderson, Nev.

Dick Snyder