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Nashotah — The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church toured Nashotah House Theological Seminary for the first time on Thursday in response to an invitation so controversial it prompted the school's longest running trustee to resign in protest.

The visit by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose church has been roiled by schism over theological debates in recent years, came at the request of three Nashatoah seminarians who wanted their bishop to see this campus where disparate parts of the fractured Anglican Communion strive to live in peace.

One of them did not live to see it happen. Deacon Terry Star, who had worked with Jefferts Schori as part of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, died unexpectedly in March. He was 40.

"This was an act of reconciliation, and Terry was a big influence in that relationship," said Ezgi Saribay, one of the three seminarians who asked Nashotah House Dean, Bishop Edward L. Salmon, and Board of Trustees President Bishop Daniel H. Martins of Springfield, Ill., to tender the invitation.

"Terry was a great conciliator," she said, "and he would have loved every second of this."

The Episcopal Church, with about 2 million members, mostly in the United States, is among the more liberal of the 39 provinces in the Worldwide Anglican Communion. And the Anglo-Catholic Nashotah House is one of the more conservative Episcopal seminaries.

Among its trustees are members of the newly formed Anglican Church in North America, a breakaway group founded in 2009 in a split over longstanding theological issues, including the ordination of women, and gays and lesbians.

But the seminary works to nurture an ethos — something it calls Pax Nashotah — in which individuals with theologically diverse views live and work respectfully together.

"The idea that no matter where you come from, we are all one in Christ, and that's all that matters," said Father Steven Peay, Nashotah's dean of academic affairs, who teaches homiletics and church history. "We don't want to let the daily politics get in the way of trying to live as Jesus intended."

Schori, who received a gracious welcome at Nashotah on Thursday, said that is true of all Episcopal seminaries, but that she was grateful to experience it firsthand at there.

"That's one of the gifts of bringing students together from different parts of the church. But it has been wonderful to see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears," said Schori, who met with students, faculty, clergy and bishops throughout the day and took part in an Evensong serviceat which she delivered the sermon.

"This place has such a long tradition in the Episcopal Church," she said. "I value that, and I want to see that it continues. The witness of this place is important to who we are as Episcopalians."

The decision to extend the invitation to Schori prompted the resignation of Nashotah House's longest-serving trustee, and an honorary trustee, both founding members of the Anglican Church in North America.

Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, whose diocese broke with the Episcopal church and has been sued over church property, resigned, saying he "could not be associated with an institution that honors her."

Retired Eau Claire Bishop and honorary trustee William Wantland severed ties with the seminary, saying he would no longer participate in its functions or contribute financially while the current administration was in place, according to news accounts.

Salmon, who took over as dean in 2011, defended the decision to welcome Schori, saying no matter what he did it would have been "problematic."

"I'm interested in inviting people to see Nashotah House and what it stands for," Salmon said. "If we stay here, off to ourselves, how can we extend the mission of the house?"