From here:After years of warnings from Anglican leaders, the recent election of a lesbian bishop poses a stark question for the Episcopal Church: Does it want to continue to be a full member in the global Anglican Communion or go its own way?In coming months, more than 100 Episcopal dioceses and bishops will answer that query by confirming or rejecting the election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool as suffragan (assistant) bishop of Los Angeles.
Glasspool, 55, has been with her partner since 1988, according to a biography she provided to the Diocese of Los Angeles; she is poised to become the second openly gay bishop elected in the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church.
But a majority of bishops and standing committees in the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses must vote to give their “consents,” or confirmation to Glasspool's election before she can be consecrated a bishop. Because that process involves the breadth of the church, it is likely to be an accurate reflection of Episcopalians' willingness to defy, or heed international pressure.
Within the U.S., the confirmation process has become more politicized in recent years, with Web sites fostering online campaigns against candidates. Two elections have been nullified in the last two years, though one of the bishops was later re-elected.
The spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Rowan Williams, strongly warned Episcopalians that confirming Glasspool “will have very important implications.” Glasspool's election “raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion but for the communion as a whole,” Williams said.
Read it all here.
5 comments:
An interesting perspective on the "stark question" posed by this election can be found at More Than a Via Media's blog posting entitled Los Angeles' declaration of independence.
What is interesting is that this article is bowdlerised - Canon Harmon's comments at the end have been edited out:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2009/12/second-gay-bishop-poses-stark.php
Which gives quite a different spin.
Come home to the Orthodox Church, where this is not even a discussion. Western Rite Orthodoxy became my port in this demonic storm.
Glasspool is a shoo-in, and Bruno's thuggish threats won't even be needed to arm-twist the few recalcitrant dioceses (though I can see a number of targets forming on backs as a result of "no" votes). TEC is now TGC, and there's no going back.
She may receive enough confirmation votes, Jeffersonian, but I don't see it as a "shoo-in." This is the first time this issue has arisen directly since the VGR issue. A lot has happened since then. Many who did not give the Robinson vote the thought, prayer, and reflection it merited might find this to be at least as important a vote as the Forrester vote of a few months ago.
If nothing else, some "moderate" and "liberal" bishops (I know those labels are wholly inadequate, but around here, most people are comfortable with their inadequacies) will no doubt recognize that parties who enjoy and are rooting for the spectacle of the Church pulling apart at the seams are absolutely thrilled with the Glasspool nomination. This may lead to some caution on the part of those trying to hold the remnants of the church together. They can easily withhold a confirmation vote on the same basis that they would withhold a positive vote for a heterosexual candidate living in a non-marital sexual relationship.
Scout
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