Nevada is a contradiction in terms. At one end of the Silver State is the Las Vegas metropolitan area, growing at the rate of 5,000 newcomers a month for the past decade. At the other end lies a highway through an area so desolate, it's dubbed "the loneliest stretch of road in America."

Likewise, the new Bishop of Nevada, the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, is a contradiction in terms. Unlike most bishops who come into the office with extensive pastoral experience, less than half of Bishop Schori's 14 years' involvement in parish ministry was as an ordained priest.

Prior to receiving her master of divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1994, Nevada's bishop had already established a career for herself in scientific research.

"I learned to think in terms of systems, to value diversity as a sign of health, and to value a great variety of traits -- and to see gifts within, rather than aberration," she said. "Those ways of looking translate pretty well to human systems!"

Using this "systems approach," Bishop Schori will continue to develop the Total Ministry model first introduced by Nevada Bishop Wesley Frensdorff in the 1980s, and later established by her predecessor, the late Bishop Stewart Zabriskie.

Unlike other dioceses where rector-led parishes are the norm, Title III, Canon 9 priests and deacons serve the majority of Nevada's 6,000 Episcopalians. It's no wonder that they more easily identify with a bishop who has been "called from the pews."

"I have been an Episcopalian since 1963," she said. "Like many others of my generation, I ceased being active in the church while I was in college. I returned to the church during graduate school, for two reasons. The death of a close childhood friend sent me looking for a community that could help me make sense of that experience, and beginning to read the great physicists of the 20th century opened my eyes to the fact that great scientists could also be people of faith. One of the missing pieces in my high school church experience was an invitation to wrestle with questions of faith and science.

"I began to be active in the church while I was in graduate school, finding there a community and opportunity to be of service.

Like many of the Canon 9 clergy of whom she will be in charge, Bishop Schori was at first reluctant to enter the priesthood.

"When I was first asked to become a priest, I said 'no'," the bishop said. "Several people in my congregation asked me if I had ever considered it. I hadn't. When these people asked me, all within the space of two weeks, it was such a surprise that I spoke at great length with the rector. We eventually came to the conclusion, that, at the very least, the time was not right. I went on about my business. Five years later, I was asked to preach at Sunday Morning Prayer. That experience, preparing for it, and hearing the response afterward, finally let me say yes. I was in seminary the next fall."

Shortly after her consecration, Bishop Schori attended a Living Stones conference on Total Ministry, at which she raised the question "Has anyone raised a new parish from the ground up using the Total Ministry approach? My inquiry told me there has been little intentional work in this direction, although there is significant interest. As Nevada looks toward the needs of its rapidly growing urban areas, I trust that the high value we place on baptismal ministry will remain central."

Coincidentally, the bishop pointed out that "the Total Ministry parish of St. Martin in Pahrump, Nev., has a good, solid beginning," having grown from nothing 12 years ago to a church with its own building and its first Canon 9 priest who will be ordained in May.

In spite of its widespread application throughout the diocese, there are those who feel the "practice" of Total Ministry within Nevada needs serious overhauling. The Rev. Massey Gentry, rector of Christ Church, located in the center of Las Vegas, told a reporter from the Las Vegas Sun that "Total Ministry is, as a model for ordination, theologically bankrupt."

As Bishop of Nevada, Katherine Jefferts Schori feels that the greatest talents she has to offer Nevadans are "A real passion for Total Ministry, a growing love for the people of Nevada, a good bit of energy, the ability to think in terms of systems, and reasonable comfort with thinking 'outside the box.'"

"Her relative inexperience is a gift," said the Rev. Steven Kalas, a regional vicar for the diocese. "The Diocese of Nevada was in serious need of being seen with new eyes."

Serwind Netzler is the former editor of The Desert Church. He is a member of St. Christopher's Church in Boulder City, Nev.