The 2008 U.S. presidential election has illustrated how gender, race, and religion can become lightning rods, and seen as potential stumbling blocks to leadership. Vashti McKenzie is a pioneering figure on all these fronts; when she became the first woman bishop of the oldest historic black church in America, she declared: "The stained glass ceiling has been pierced and broken." We offer her story, her wisdom, and her good humor as an edifying lens on the American past, present, and future.