US Episcopal Church does it again by electing an openly lesbian candidate, the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, as bishop suffragan
As if relations within the Anglican communion were not strained enough already because of the likes of Gene Robinson, the Episcopal church goes and does it again.
Is it any wonder that yet another commission reports that the Episcopal Church is in steep decline and that the Pope decided to take direct action in Anglican affairs? It seems that they will not be satisfied until the have utterly destroyed their own church in the pursuit of zeitgeist and of course their own liberal “rights”.
Here is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Statement on the Los Angeles Episcopal Elections:-
The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.
The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.
The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.
This vote was sufficiently grim news for even the BBC to feature it prominently:-
Rift flares after US Episcopal Church elects gay bishop
A diocese in Los Angeles has elected only the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican Church, reigniting an issue that has caused deep division.
Rev Mary Glasspool, from Baltimore, was elected assistant bishop, although she needs a majority of national Episcopal Church heads to back her consecration.
The election of the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, six years ago created a massive rift.
Traditionalists have already expressed opposition to the latest election.
Conservatives insist the Bible unequivocally outlaws homosexuality whereas liberals believe the Bible should be reinterpreted in the light of contemporary wisdom.
The row led to the formation of a conservative breakaway Episcopal movement in the US – the Anglican Church in North America.
The head of the worldwide Anglican community, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has been under pressure to recognise it.
Moratorium
BBC religious affairs correspondent Chris Landau says that for an Anglican Communion already fracturing over the issue of homosexuality, this election is yet more evidence of the church’s divisions.
He says that for many in the US, electing openly homosexual bishops is simply a reflection of the diversity long affirmed by that Church.
Episcopal Church leader, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, has said she will consecrate any bishop whose election follows the rules.
Mary Glasspool is 55 and has been a canon in the Diocese of Maryland for eight years, Associated Press news agency reports.
It says she has been with her partner, Becki Sander, since 1988.
In a statement after her election, Mary Glasspool said: “Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights.”
The diocese’s Bishop J Jon Bruno acknowledged there were rumours of a “concerted effort not to give consent” to Mary Glasspool’s election because of her sexuality.
But he said: “I would remind the Episcopal Church and the House of Bishops they need to be conscientious about respecting the canons of the Church and the baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being.”
However, one traditionalist clergyman, Rev Kendall Harmon of South Carolina, told AP: “This decision represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching”.
Delegates in Los Angeles have been voting for two assistant bishops – the other is Rev Diane M Jardine Bruce.
Bishops of the US Episcopal Church voted in July to overturn a three-year ban on the appointment of gay bishops.
Anglican leaders had asked the Church to observe the moratorium.
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