Integrity celebrates with the Diocese of Los Angeles and the whole church today at the ordinations of Bishop Diane Jardine Bruce and Bishop Mary Douglas Glasspool. This history making day is another important step forward toward the full inclusion of all the baptized in the work and witness of the Episcopal Church, and Integrity is honored to have been part of it.

“As we celebrate these ordinations today, we also celebrate the hard work and persistent activism of Integrity over the last 35 years,” said President David Norgard. “Here in Long Beach today we are not only reaping the fruit of the work of those who have gone before us–we are planting the seeds for fuller inclusion throughout the whole church.”

Also present at the festive ordination service were past-presidents of Integrity, including Bruce Garner (Atlanta), Kim Byham (Newark), and Susan Russell (Los Angeles). “As a daughter of this diocese [I] could not be more proud that Los Angeles has responded to the call to be a headlight instead of taillight on full inclusion,” said Russell. “Today the first woman Presiding Bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion ordained the first two women bishops in the history of the Diocese of Los Angeles…and the fact that one of them is a lesbian is not an ‘issue’ but an opportunity for us to better incarnate the wholeness of God’s abundant and inclusive love.”

Today is a day for celebration. And tomorrow Integrity will get back to work toward the day when the gender, orientation, identity or race of a bishop for the Church of God is no longer an “issue.” For anybody. And for the time when all the sacraments will be fully available to all the baptized. For everybody

The Rev Mary Glasspool will become Assistant Bishop of Los Angeles in a “grand event” taking place at a 13,500-seat arena on the Californian coast.

Her appointment is being made despite warnings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, about the “serious questions” it will raise for the 80 million-strong Anglican Communion.

It is being viewed by traditionalists as another “provocative” move by the ultra-liberal Episcopal Church of the USA in “defiance” of pleas not to go against tradition and Scripture by ordaining homosexual bishops.

Read the whole piece.

The election of Mary Glasspool – who has been with her partner Becki for 22 years – represented a snub by the liberal Episcopal Church to other Anglican Churches around the world.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had urged the American Church not to proceed with the ordination, warning that it would further alienate traditionalists who believe active homosexuality to be a sin.

It is likely to accelerate the gradual marginalisation of the Episcopal Church within a two-tier Communion and increase tensions between Anglicans elsewhere.

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The national Episcopal Church has more than 2.2 million members in 16 countries. It is under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 70 million members worldwide. While many churches in the United States and Western Europe have accepted gay clergy, most in Asia and Africa condemn homosexuality.

The issue intensified when the first gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, was consecrated in the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. As a result, many parishes broke from the church, including All Saints Episcopal Church of Long Beach.

This time around, [Canon Robert ] Williams said he hasn’t heard of any local parishes threatening to leave the dioceses. He said the church is overjoyed for today’s event and is committed to moving forward.

“The Episcopal Church continues its long tradition of members of diverse points of view yet who are united in common prayer,” Williams said. “While a small percentage have chosen to disaffiliate in recent years, there remains a strong and vibrant core membership.”

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From here:

Today Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA) pray episcopal consecration prayers over the Revd Mary Glasspool, who lives in an openly same-sex relationship.

Today, St Lawrence Morden, in the Diocese of Southwark, together with other congregation members from the team parish, keeps a day of prayer on Leith Hill, Surrey. As well as confessing individual sin, they will mourn the passing of the Anglican Communion as it has been. They will celebrate the emergence of a renewed communion, led by the large majority of Anglicans in the Global South, and intercede over the response to ECUSA’s action, by Archbishop Rowan Williams and other Church of England Bishops. We will give thanks for the unity of our Diocese maintained by recently retired Bishop, Tom Butler. We call on Anglican churches around the world to pray with us, over the appointment of the next Bishop of Southwark.

All seems oddly quiet on this day when Canon Mary Glasspool will be ordained and consecrated at a Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles. Yet the consequences may well be graver than ensued after the Bishop of New Hampshire was consecrated in 2003. Then it could be said with some plausibility that no one in TEC realized what a fuss would emerge. No one is in any doubt this time. The Archbishop of Canterbury has made it clear that there will be consequences for TEC in its relationship with the Communion and there will be consequences within the Communion.

I read this morning an interview in the Baltimore Sun with Canon Glasspool which includes a short video. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-glasspool-bishop-consecration-20100507,0,73

A number of points were raised which invite comment….

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The Maryland priest at the center of a seismic tumult in the worldwide international Anglican Communion is slim and stands just over five feet, wears her gray hair cut short and greets visitors with a strong two-handed grasp. She’s known to former parishioners and colleagues for emotional and insightful sermons, administrative skill, high energy ”” and for occasionally wearing a giant foam wedge of cheese on her head to honor her favorite NFL team.

The Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, due to be consecrated Saturday as bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, is known to the rest of the world by a phrase that would fit on a bumper sticker: “First openly lesbian bishop.”

If the label seems handy, Glasspool said she hopes it soon outlives its usefulness.

“People who know me, the label will disappear. All I’m asking is an opportunity to get to know me,” Glasspool, 56, said last week in an interview at the Baltimore headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. As canon to the bishops for the last nine years, she has served there as principal adviser to the leaders of the church.

Read it all.

In the past the Archbishop of Canterbury has acknowledged indirectly that he has this authority. When he wrote the Primates in December 2006 concerning the upcoming meeting in Dar es Salaam, Archbishop Williams advised them that: “I have decided not to withhold an invitation to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the elected Primate of the Episcopal Church to attend the forthcoming meeting. I believe it is important that she be given a chance both to hear and to speak and to discuss face to face the problems we are confronting together.” He indicated in this letter that this was his decision based on open questions about TEC’s response to the Windsor Report. Those questions have now been conclusively answered by TEC, and a different decision is now required if the Communion is to survive.

Separately, when Ian Douglas was consecrated bishop he was disqualified from membership in the ACC (and its standing committee) since that would give TEC two bishops among its three members, which is not permitted under the ACC constitution. As The Church of England Newspaper reports, both TEC and Douglas take the position that he can be elected in June to the episcopal seat of the retiring Catharine Roskam (who continues to serve under ACC rules until just before the next meeting) and thereby remain on the ACC standing committee. But this result would violate ACC rules, and this position entails in any event the recognition that his current clerical seat has been relinquished by his consecration to the episcopacy. In other words, his seat on the ACC standing committee is already vacant, and he cannot resume that seat if he is elected to Roskam’s seat, which would not take effect until the next ACC meeting in any event under ACC rules (Resolution 4:28). Under the ACC bylaws (Article 7) the standing committee is now required to appoint a clerical member to fill the seat on the standing committee formerly held by Douglas.

Indeed, there is a precisely analogous situation in Canada to that of Douglas and TEC. Stephen Andrews, like Douglas, went to ACC-14 in Jamaica as a clergy member for his first meeting. After ACC-14, Andrews was consecrated bishop by the Anglican Church of Canada. Canada understands that Andrews ceased to be a member of the ACC upon his consecration and therefore that he has now been replaced by his clerical alternate. Indeed, Andrews was elected bishop before ACC-14, but his consecration delayed until after the meeting in Jamaica (we are told) precisely because Canada understood the ACC implications of his consecration. If TEC is permitted to circumvent the ACC rules to keep Douglas on the ACC and its standing committee, especially after the decision to disqualify Uganda’s chosen ACC representative at Jamaica, any remaining trust in the ACC will be lost forever.

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As bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, our eyes are open to the realities of transgender people and their families. Many of them serve faithfully in the congregations and ministries of our diocese, as lay people, as deacons and as priests. They are dedicated and loving parents, children, siblings, friends and community leaders. Again and again, we hear how they have struggled against incredible odds and pressures to be true to their identity as beloved children of God, made in the image of God.

It pains us that even as transgender people claim their identities and step into newness of life, they face discrimination and violence that undermines their human dignity. A November 2009 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that 97 percent of respondents had been harassed or mistreated on the job, and 26 percent had been fired for being transgender. You will recall that in November 1998, an Allston transgender woman, Rita Hester, was murdered and her killer never found. This local tragedy led to an annual Nov. 20 international Transgender Day of Remembrance, for transgender people who have died, especially those who have been killed or taken their own lives. It is fitting that our state should model amendment of life and hope for a future that is better than this sad past.

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We are now less than six days from ECUSA’s “consecration” of a partnered lesbian to the (ECUSAn, at any rate) episcopacy. As I wrote in this earlier post, in so consecrating Canon Mary Glasspool, ECUSA will shoot itself in the foot. Even so, the silence from Lambeth Palace over the past weeks has been deafening.

Contrast to the present scenario the weeks following the confirmation of the election of V. Gene Robinson as bishop by both Houses at General Convention 2003….

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One of West Virginia’s best-known ministers — an activist against the Iraq war and longtime leader of other public causes — has been stripped of his license by the state’s Episcopal bishop.

The Rev. Jim Lewis says his Episcopal credentials were revoked on grounds that he performed too many rites for his former parishioners at St. John’s Church in Charleston.

However, he says, nearly nine years have elapsed since he returned to Charleston in retirement, and his involvement with long-ago church members never caused a problem until now.

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A former American bishop, who quit the Episcopal Church for the Roman Catholic Church in 2007, has been restored to the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church.

However, the method used to restore the Rt Rev Daniel Herzog of Albany does not conform to church law, legal scholars note, and was accomplished by a questionable canonical legerdemain that leaves his current status in doubt.

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At each stop, Episcopalians from the region interviewed the clerics, probing them on such questions as how they resolve conflicts, whether they would support the diocese’s practice of blessing same-sex unions and ordaining gay priests, and how they would reach out to the disenfranchised inside and outside the church.

Delegates and clergy will elect the new bishop at a special May 22 convention in Salt Lake City’s St. Mark’s Cathedral. He or she will replace the Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, who is retiring in the fall.

“It will be hard because each has clear gifts,” said the Rev. Trace Browning, chaplain at Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s School after Tuesday’s walkabout interviews. “I don’t think it will go on the first ballot.”

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Members of Utah’s Episcopal Diocese got acquainted Tuesday with a diverse group of candidates from which to select their next bishop, asking about everything from budgeting expertise to views on same-sex marriage and ordination.

The latter question is especially pertinent because one of the candidates ”” the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of California ”” married his longtime partner in 2008, before Proposition 8 banned gay marriage in that state.

Barlowe and three other finalists spoke during rotating question and answer sessions at St. Mark’s Cathedral Tuesday night. He and two of the three other candidates said they would support and allow the church’s blessing of same-sex unions and that they would ordain gay clergy in the Beehive State.

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Attorneys for the Episcopal Church and for Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison argued before an ecclesiastical appeals court here May 4 about whether the bishop should have been tried and convicted on charges stemming from his response to his priest brother’s sexual misconduct some 35 years ago.

Among the issues facing the eight-bishop Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop after three hours of oral arguments are questions of whether the evidence presented at Bennison’s trial supported his conviction, whether the canonical statute of limitations on those actions had run, and whether the trial court’s sentence of deposition would be unduly harsh because Bennison himself did not engage in the sexual abuse.

The hearing took place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Bennison, the alleged victim and her mother were present for the hearing, along with nearly 45 other people, including officials from the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

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A panel of Episcopal bishops has heard arguments in the final appeal of a Pennsylvania bishop defrocked for covering up his brother’s child sexual abuse more than 30 years ago.

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A conservative former Episcopal bishop of Albany who left the church in 2007 to become a Roman Catholic has now returned to his former faith.

Daniel W. Herzog became an outspoken national opponent of ordaining gay clergy after he retired from the ministry in 2007. He made news that year when he and two other diocesan bishops left the Episcopal Church to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The Episcopal Church, the American wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, had been in turmoil following the consecration in 2003 of V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop.

Herzog’s return was announced this week by Albany Bishop William Love. Both Herzog and his wife, Carol, left the church. Herzog was one of only a handful of Episcopal bishops ever to join another church.

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With just a dozen regular Sunday worshippers, the people of Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Perry were in no position to afford a full-time priest.

But they didn’t intend to shut down their 170-year-old rural parish, either.

So the congregation looked within its own pews and found a willing candidate for the priesthood.

And he comes cheap, too.

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Watch it all (a little over 5 minutes). Always nice to hear an Episcopal Bishop encourage people to memorize Scripture–KSH.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has issued an order for Restoration of Ordained Ministry for retired Bishop of Albany Daniel W. Herzog, who left the Episcopal Church in March 2007 to join the Roman Catholic Church.

“I am delighted at his return to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church,” said Jefferts Schori.

The presiding bishop issued the order after “full consultation and on the recommendation of Diocese of Albany Bishop William H. Love,” according to a news release from the church’s Office of Public Affairs due to be posted…. [soon].

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The Rev. Morris Thompson already has begun his first major undertaking as incoming bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana: listening.

Thompson, 54, moved to New Orleans from Lexington, Ky., in March to take the place of Bishop Charles Jenkins. He will be ordained May 8 as the diocese’s 11th bishop at Christ Church Cathedral.

What Thompson is especially good at, his resume and acquaintances say, is pastoral care, the kind of psychological and spiritual therapy he made a specialty as a hospital chaplain in Kentucky and his native Mississippi.

So far, Thompson has toured some of the 55 congregations in his diocese, which covers most of Southeast Louisiana. He said his listening tour is likely to go on for a year or more, until he begins to distill a sense of where his diocese of 18,000 Episcopalians is, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and what he thinks it needs.

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As Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, the Right Rev. Philip M. Duncan, II, is faith leader for 62 churches with approximately 22,000 parishioners.

Traveling through the diocese – stretching from west Florida through south Alabama – Duncan, alongside parish priests, preaches, teaches, confirms new members, baptizes and celebrates the Eucharist.

“My position,” he says, “is not only to serve in the diocese but also in the church and ultimately in the worldwide Anglican community.”

An affable, philosophical man with a buoyant sense of humor, Duncan was consecrated as bishop in May 2001.

Read it all.

My Dear Spanish-Speaking Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today is a sad day in the struggle to see all God’s people treated in a humane and compassionate manner. I had hoped that our Governor and law-makers would listen to their consciences and not be swayed by the voices of bigotry and racism. With the Governor’s signing of SB 1070, it seems that for now the advocates of fear and hatred have won over those of charity and love. Arizona claims to be a Golden Rule State. We have not lived up to that claim.

I know that the passage of this law is deeply troubling to many of you, especially those of undocumented status. I know that many of you fear for your jobs, your families, and your future in this state and in this country.

Read it all.

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[Q.] Where is the Episcopal Diocese of California going with Same Sex Blessings and Gay marriage? Will the Diocese of California support a measure at the national General Convention on this matter? Has a statement been formulated on the subject? Will you comment and broadly state answers to questions regarding your Pastoral Letter on Gay Marriage?

[A.] At its recent General Convention, an every-three-year legislative gathering for the whole Episcopal Church, among the many pieces of legislation passed was two that pertain to inclusion of LGBT people. Together, these two resolutions affirm the access that all people have to the full life of the church.

[Q.] If there is a key Bible vision that supports Gay Marriage & Same Sex Blessing, please give a Biblical example and explain something of your vision on interpretation? Who else shares this sensibility and understanding we might know or recognize?

[A.] The story of the anointing of David by Samuel in which it editorially says that God does not judge as human’s judge, human’s judge by outward appearances, but god sees the human heart. When The Episcopal Church is looking at a human couple who seeks the blessing of the church on their relationship, we humbly attempt to see as God sees, which reveals certain characteristics ”“ love, fidelity, forgiveness, mutuality, humility ”” all of which The Episcopal Church considers more important than external considerations.

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There are two short talks one by Robert Duncan and the second by John Howe.

Two summers ago I traveled from Maine to England to participate in the Lambeth Conference. Held every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the conference gathers more than 800 Anglican bishops from countries all over the world. In conversation with fellow bishops from many developing countries and places where global warming is effecting rapid and dramatic change in the environment and in the fragile lives of citizens, I saw with new eyes the way we are contributing to the problem.

In my Bible study group was the Convener of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, the Archbishop of Canberra (Australia). He spoke of the growing and persistent drought in central Australia, drought that was drying up the rivers, killing the cattle industry and expanding the desert.

“For you in the temperate Northern Hemisphere,” he said, “global warming is an interesting scientific concept to be debated. For us, it’s life and death! And you just keep driving your SUVs.”

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He went on to say that the Anglican Communion had been reflecting on the need for a covenant “in the light of confusion, brokenness and tension within our Anglican family ”“ brokenness and a tension that has been made still more acute by recent decisions in some of our Provinces.?

“In all your minds there will be questions around the election and consecration of Mary Glasspool in Los Angeles. All of us share the concern that in this decision and action the Episcopal Church has deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family. And as I speak to you now, I am in discussion with a number of people around the world about what consequences might follow from that decision, and how we express the sense that most Anglicans will want to express, that this decision cannot speak for our common mind.

“But I hope also in your thinking about this and in your reacting to it, you’ll bear in mind that there are no quick solutions for the wounds of the Body of Christ. It is the work of the Spirit that heals the Body of Christ, not the plans or the statements of any group, or any person, or any instrument of communion. Naturally we seek to minimize the damage, to heal the hurts, to strengthen our mission, to make sure that it goes forward with integrity and conviction.? Naturally, there are decisions that have to be taken.? But at the same time we must all…share in a sense of repentance and willingness to be renewed by the Spirit.

Read it carefully and read it all and note if you desire to you can watch the full address on video there.

“There’s an art form to a worship service, particularly an Episcopal service,” said Fleming, Reeves’ godson. “I think his strength was in the liturgy. He was a consummate liturgist.”

Reeves, 91, died Thursday in Asheville, N.C.

Reeves retired to North Carolina in 1985 after serving more than a decade as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. He was consecrated the diocese’s seventh bishop in 1969.

The Right Rev. Harry W. Shipps, who succeeded Reeves as bishop, remembered the man both for his strong views and his sense of humor.

“I greatly valued his wisdom, and recall his strong commitment to the historic traditions of the Church,” Shipps said. “He had an ironic sense of humor that always amused.”

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[Desmond] Tutu, who helped lead opposition to apartheid in South Africa and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, delivered a passionate but humorous sermon about the importance of unity.

“We don’t choose who is going to be my brother or my sister ”” though I wish I could,” he told the audience. “They are God’s gift to me, as I am God’s gift to them.”

Tutu, who spoke with his eyes closed and arms outstretched, urged the audience to embrace everyone, including tea party activists, Democrats, Republicans, gays and lesbians and George Bush, a name that drew a booming belly laugh.

He spoke directly to Douglas.

“Ian, please tell the children of God each one of them is precious,” he said. “Each one of them is held in this cosmic embrace.”

Read it all.