Read it all.

The Episcopal Church announced today that it will consecrate its second non-celibate homosexual bishop on May 15. The Presiding Bishop’s office announced that a majority of bishops and diocesan Standing Committees consented to the consecration of Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool as a suffragan bishop of Los Angeles.

The following is a statement from Bishop David C. Anderson, President and CEO of the American Anglican Council, on the announcement.

“What this means is the majority of The Episcopal Church’s leaders – down to the diocesan level throughout America – are exercising no restraint as requested by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates of the Anglican Communion. Despite pleas to the contrary, they have given their consent for a partnered lesbian to become a bishop, not just for Los Angeles, but for the whole church. Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise because The Episcopal Church, at its General Convention this summer, voted in favor of allowing dioceses to determine whether they will conduct same sex blessings using whatever rites they deem appropriate. Even if The Episcopal Church should eventually decide to sign an Anglican Covenant, it has shown time and time again that it will not abide by traditional Christian and Anglican Communion teaching on marriage and sexuality.”

I am saddened but not surprised by today’s news. This decision represents not simply a change in doctrine, nor a single change in practice, but an established pattern of common life. It is contrary to the teaching of Holy Scripture and the mind of the church catholic.

Since the Archbishop of Canterbury said this choice raises “very serious questions”¦for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion” one would have hoped that at least the bishops would have waited until they were gathered at their upcoming House of Bishops meeting to discern prayerfully their response together. They instead sought to embrace a way of life which the church through the Bible has always understood to be forbidden. Therefore the tragic damage the Episcopal Church has recently caused the third largest Christian family in the world will continue in the future, hurting our collective witness and grieving the heart of God.

–The Rev. Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina

The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop’s office notifies Diocese of Los Angeles of successful canonical consent process

Bishop-Elect Glasspool ordination and consecration on May 15

March 17, 2010

The Governance of The Episcopal Church: This information is another in an ongoing series discussing the governance of The Episcopal Church.
The Office of Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has notified the Diocese of Los Angeles that the canonical consent process for Bishop-Elect Mary Douglas Glasspool has been successfully completed.

As outlined under Canon III.11.4 (a), the Presiding Bishop confirmed the receipt of consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction, and has also reviewed the evidence of consents from a majority of standing committees of the Church sent to her by the diocesan standing committee.

In Canon III.11.4 (b), Standing Committees, in consenting to the ordination and consecration, attest they are “fully sensible of how important it is that the Sacred Order and Office of a Bishop should not be unworthily conferred, and firmly persuaded that it is our duty to bear testimony on this solemn occasion without partiality, do, in the presence of Almighty God, testify that we know of no impediment on account of which the Reverend A.B. ought not to be ordained to that Holy Office. We do, moreover, jointly and severally declare that we believe the Reverend A.B. to have been duly and lawfully elected and to be of such sufficiency in learning, of such soundness in the Faith, and of such godly character as to be able to exercise the Office of a Bishop to the honor of God and the edifying of the Church, and to be a wholesome example to the flock of Christ.”

Glasspool was elected Bishop Suffragan on December 5, 2009. Her ordination and consecration is slated for May 15; Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori will officiate.

A recap of the process

Upon election, the successful candidate is a bishop-elect. Following some procedural matters including physical and psychological examinations, formal notices are then sent by the Presiding Bishop’s office to bishops with jurisdiction (diocesan bishops only) with separate notices from the electing diocese to the standing committees of each of the dioceses in The Episcopal Church. These notices require their own actions and signatures.

In order for a bishop-elect to become a bishop, Canon III.11.4 (a) of The Episcopal Church mandates that a majority of diocesan bishops AND a majority of diocesan standing committees must consent to the bishop-elect’s ordination and consecration as bishop. These actions ”“ done separately – must be completed within 120 days from the day notice of the election was sent to the proper parties.

If the bishop-elect receives a majority (at least 50% plus 1) of consents from the diocesan bishops as well as a majority from the standing committees, the bishop-elect is one step closer. Following a successful consent process, ordination and celebration are in order.

A majority of dioceses in the Episcopal Church have confirmed the election of an open lesbian as a bishop in Los Angeles, bringing Bishop-elect Mary Glasspool one step closer to consecration.

The Diocese of Los Angeles, where Glasspool was elected as an assistant bishop last December, announced confirmations from 61 of the denomination’s 110 dioceses on Wednesday (March 10).

Read it all.

Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool has received the required number of consents from diocesan standing committees to her ordination and consecration, pending verification by the presiding bishop’s office.

The Diocese of Los Angeles announced March 10 that Glasspool had received 61 standing committee consents, in an unofficial tally. A majority of consents, or 56, were required from standing committees in the Episcopal Church’s 109 dioceses.

“I give thanks for the standing commitees’ prompt action, and for the consents to the elections of my sisters,” Los Angeles Bishop Diocesan J. Jon Bruno said on March 10, referring to both Glasspool and Bishop-elect Diane Jardine Bruce.

“I look forward to the final few consents to come in from the bishops in the next few days, and I give thanks for the fact that we as a church have taken a bold step for just action.”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s office has yet to verify the official number of bishops with jurisdiction who have consented to Glasspool’s ordination and consecration.

Read it all.

The Diocese of Missouri’s standing committee granted consent, and president Jane Klieve offered brief thoughts on that decision in a message to the diocese released on March 2. The standing committee began discussing the matter in January, but postponed its decision until Feb. 23, she wrote.

“As a body, we consider both the importance of supporting/ratifying decisions made by our brothers and sisters in other dioceses and the impact of these decisions on The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion,” Klieve wrote. “While the vote was not easy, quickly taken, or unanimous, we voted to grant our consent to the election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool.”

The standing committee of Northern Indiana declined consent. In a Jan. 28 letter [PDF] to the Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles, the standing committee said it was not of one mind on sexuality questions, and explained its decision to deny consent…

Read it all.

An L.A. diocesan press release is here and an ENS article is there.

From here:

“In God the Lord whose word I praise,
In God I trust and will not be afraid.” (Ps. 56:10)

Dear Church family,

I received a call at 7am this morning from Eric Sohlgren, our attorney, notifying me that our petition to the US Supreme Court has been denied. The court does not give reasons for its denials.

This is well and truly the end of the legal road for us and I know some of you are disappointed that we will never recover our property and that this kind of injustice will continue in other legal battles across the country. We especially think of our sister churches, St. David’s, All Saints and St. James and the road before them. Do keep them and other sister churches further afield in your prayers.
I know others of you are relieved that the legal wrangling is over and we can be about the work of the Gospel unhindered. Or you may be feeling a mixture of both disappointment and relief, as am I. Where ever you are, know that we will continue to walk forward together and that our Lord is with us.

The other question that rises is what was that all about? I am not sure that is a helpful question. Rather, we need to remember why we did what we did as we continue to trust God with the outcome. So let me remind everyone the main reason we felt compelled to appeal. It was for the sake of our sister churches so that they wouldn’t have to experience the pain and loss of being evicted from dear and memory filled houses of worship. So that they would not suffer the same injustice that we have suffered at the hands of false shepherds in the leadership of the Episcopal Church. By the way, I say that without bitterness or anger. It is simply a fact. May the Lord have mercy upon them.

So remembering why we did what we did, and remembering that the vast majority of our legal costs have been funded as though manna from heaven, we are to rest in God’s good purposes for us. He will continue to prove himself to be utterly faithful.

Finally, I want to leave you with the psalm verse that spoke peace to me in my evening devotions last night:

“In God the Lord whose word I praise,
In God I trust and will not be afraid.” (Ps. 56:10)

You may find it helpful to continue to pray this until is settles deeply in your heart.

So ”˜forgetting what lies behind”¦ [let us] press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:13-14

–(The Rev.) Rob Holman is rector, St. Luke’s Anglican Church La Crescenta, California

From here:

The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Los Angeles reported Feb. 24 that within the last 50 days it has received 51 of the majority of 56 consents needed to the Dec. 5 election of the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool as a bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles.

Please note that this is ONLY the vote of the Standing Committees, not the vote of Bishops with jurisdiction. As I have said in numerous settings the first is a foregone conclusion, the only interesting thing is the second vote where it will be more interesting–KSH.

Read them all.

I am writing to share with you my decision to give my consent for the consecration of the Rev. Mary Glasspool, bishop suffragan elect, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. What follows address both the considerations of my decision and also my interpretation of related Resolutions of The Episcopal Church, including C056 and D025 of the 2009 General Convention. In the consent process of an Episcopal election, the Church asks all bishops with jurisdiction and all Standing Committees to review the election process and discern the candidate’s suitability as a bishop for the entire Church. Only in a few cases are there questions about the suitability of a candidate or the election process. On such occasions, it has been my custom to inform the diocese of my conclusions.

Throughout her 30 years of ordained ministry, the Rev. Mary Glasspool has been faithful and consistent to the ministry, doctrine and teaching of the Episcopal Church. This includes her current ministry (since 2001) as Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Maryland. In the one area where there is controversy, she has been unquestionably faithful to the spirit of the Church. I have known her for many years, and I have known her to be an excellent priest, pastor, administrator and servant of the church. What I have read of her writings, her preaching, her guidance of parishes in discernment for either deployment or congregational development of their mission has deeply impressed me. Her efforts in formal theological continuing education have reflected a desire to grow theologically as a leader in the Church. Her commitment to Jesus Christ has always been clearly expressed in her ministry. As I have been in discernment about consent for consecration, I have had extended conversation with bishops with whom she has served. It is their experience that she has been effective and well received by all clergy and parishes of her diocese, including those of decidedly conservative convictions. Canon Glasspool has been invited to lead vestry retreats and mutual ministry reviews in all parishes of the diocese. She has gained a common and mutual respect with all church leaders in her diocese.

Read it all.

Love. Treat others as you would have them treat you. If you feel you are a child of God, then honor your common and equal status with others as children of God. Except (and there are always exceptions with sibling rivalry) if they are women and therefore not qualified to perform the holiest sacraments of the church. Except if two members of the same sex engage in long, committed and faithful love; God may be love, but this love is ungodly.

Just look, some vigilant Christians say, at the “clear teaching” in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (“Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers ”” none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.”); in 1 Timothy 1:9-11 (“The law is laid down … for the unholy and profane … for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.”); and especially in Romans 1:26b-27 (“Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”)

I know that this will offend some Christians, but the notion that Scripture is perfectly clear is wishful thinking, as a recent white paper prepared by the All Saints’ clergy demonstrates. The writers of the four Gospels don’t agree on even so simple a thing as which people were present at Christ’s empty tomb. Considering that, over the centuries, the Bible has been translated into and out of multiple languages, it only makes sense to consider the context of what’s written rather than believe that every word is literal divine revelation.

Read it all.

Everything I know about Mary Glasspool assures me that she is an experienced, faithful priest with extensive diocesan experience and strong leadership skills. I believe she would make a wonderful bishop and that she is an excellent match for the Diocese of
Los Angeles. Her election there was logical and appropriate.

Nevertheless, it is clear to me that the ordination of an openly Gay woman to the episcopate will – at this time – have a serious negative impact on our relationship with the wider Anglican Communion, and that it may very well strain – to the breaking point – those bonds of affection which we have come to value with others, even with those who may agree with us. This, in turn, would limit or damage our future ability to offer leadership to the wider church around matters of sexuality and social justice, as well as limit our participation in shared programs for mission.

Read it all.

“A bit of a rant” he calls it. Read it all and notice carefully where the argument really lies.

(Please note the the document quoted has already been posted earlier this week–KSH)

Anglicanism is a tradition that makes decisions on the basis of practice rather than confession. We are a church that determines membership and status by behavior rather than by belief.

–The Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall in God’s Call and Our Response

The 120-day processes by which bishops and standing committees of the 110 dioceses of the Episcopal Church are asked to provide formal consent to the December 2009 elections of two bishops suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles opened on January 5 and January 8, officials have confirmed.

“This is now a period of reflection, prayer and discernment among the bishops and standing committees,” Diocesan Bishop J. Jon Bruno said of the consent process as it officially opened. “Our diocesan officers and bishops-elect will honor this process by postponing public comment, including media interviews, until after the required consents are received. We give thanks that the Holy Spirit is at work as the Church moves forward.”

Read it all.

(Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ):

As we approach the nativity of Christ, we need to remember the admonition of the angels to the shepherds: “Be not afraid.”

The Episcopal Church, a member of the Anglican Communion, for more than the past 30 years has been working on gradual, full incorporation of gay and lesbian people. We have worked to be people of gracious restraint for all these years and have now come to a place in our lives that is normal evolutionary change which compels us to move from tolerance to full inclusion.

As with racial and cultural divides, we can look to the great words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who calls us not to fall prey to the insidious drug of gradualism. Indeed, as he said in his speech titled “I Have a Dream”: “This is no time … to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism …. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

We must move forward and respect the dignity of all human beings which is called for in our Baptismal Covenant and canons.

The Diocese of Los Angeles has acted in good faith and is moving forward in supporting the full inclusion and full humanity of all people in the Church. Thus, we celebrate the elections of Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool as our next Bishops Suffragan called to share in the work of a strong episcopal team serving this Diocese and all of God’s people.

–(The Rt. Rev.) J. Jon Bruno is Bishop of Los Angeles

The following resolution was passed by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion meeting in London on 15-18 December, and approved for public distribution.

Resolved that, in the light of:

1. The recent episcopal nomination in the Diocese of Los Angeles of a partnered lesbian candidate
2. The decisions in a number of US and Canadian dioceses to proceed with formal ceremonies of same-sex blessings
3. Continuing cross-jurisdictional activity within the Communion

The Standing Committee strongly reaffirm Resolution 14.09 of ACC 14 supporting the three moratoria proposed by the Windsor Report and the associated request for gracious restraint in respect of actions that endanger the unity of the Anglican Communion by going against the declared view of the Instruments of Communion.

Read the whole thing.

What many people do not know, and others, I’m afraid, choose to ignore, is the legal independence of the Episcopal Church from other jurisdictions. In fact, it was in Chestertown, Maryland, in 1780, that a convention of clergy and laymen began the process of making an American Church separate from the Church of England, in the spirit of our declaration of political independence of 1776.

After that, the Archbishop of Canterbury had no more legal jurisdiction in this nation than King George III, the “Supreme Governor” of the established Church of England. So when Archbishop Rowan Williams says that he regrets Canon Glasspool’s election and urges the American church to reject her, he does not speak in any official capacity.

Read it all.

From here:

Like many other Dioceses across the Episcopal Church, we will soon consider the election of Canon Mary Glasspool as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles. We pledge to do so prayerfully, recognizing, as the Archbishop of Canterbury stated, that our decision “will have very important implications” for the future of the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion.

We regret the recent statement by the Bishop of Los Angeles, The Rt. Rev. John Bruno, that withholding consent because of Canon Glasspool’s sexuality “would be a violation of the canons of this church.” The theme of the most recent General Convention, hosted by the Diocese of Los Angeles, was “Ubuntu.” At that convention the Presiding Bishop invited the Church “into a larger and more expansive way of understanding identity in community.” We thus find the threat of canonical discipline, however veiled or unintended, sadly ironic to the call of living in community despite our differences, even differences on the subject of human sexuality.

For our part, we pledge to respectfully and prayerfully consider Canon Glasspool’s election, not only in light of her qualifications, but also in light of our valued place in the Anglican Communion and the call of the proposed Covenant to act in continuity and consonance with Scripture and the catholic and apostolic faith, order, and tradition, as received by the Churches of the Anglican Communion. We encourage other Standing Committees in the Episcopal Church do the same, pledging our prayers for Canon Glasspool, Bishop Bruno, The Diocese of Los Angeles, and the Episcopal Church.

But a common complaint of American and European conservatives against Muslims is that Islam itself is a monolithic faith unsuitable for the pluralistic West. We don’t have to accept this characterization of Islam to recognize that it is close to what Anglican traditionalists are advocating for their own church.

Besides, if ever a church were rooted less in timeless truths than in historic particularities, it is Anglicanism, and the Episcopal wing of Anglicanism most of all. Anglicanism began, after all, because the pope would not sanctify Henry VIII’s divorce, and Henry used the opportunity to seize the church and all its properties. Episcopalianism began when the leaders of the American Revolution (two-thirds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were active or, like George Washington, nominal Anglicans) realized they could hardly stay religiously affiliated with a church headed by the very king against whom they were rebelling secularly.

Given the schismatic and distinctly secular nature of Anglicanism’s and Episcopalianism’s origins, the pending ordination of L.A.’s lesbian bishop seems well within the church tradition. A faith rooted in the denial of papal authority and kingly authority, a faith that in the United States has increasingly championed egalitarian principles, should hardly be cowed by contingent bigotries masquerading as universal truths.

Read it all.

The election of a lesbian priest as a bishop in the Episcopal Church is likely to cause further problems in the divided Anglican Communion, said Arch bishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

“The election of Mary Glasspool by the diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan [assistant] 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,” said Williams, the spiritual leader of the 77-million Anglicans worldwide, in a December 6 statement.

Glasspool, who has served as canon, or assistant, to the bishops of the Diocese of Maryland, has lived in a two-decade partnership with another woman. She is the first gay candidate elected as bishop since the Episcopal Church in July opened all levels of church service to gays and lesbians in committed relationships.

Read it all.

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. In 2003, it caused an uproar by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The following year, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal Church to hold off on electing another gay bishop while they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.

But in July, the U.S. church’s top policy making body affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops despite pressure from other Anglicans.

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for gracious restraint on the matter, but Jefferts Schori said Saturday that “there was never any time frame attached to that request.”

[Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori] added that she didn’t know whether six years was long enough to wait but “the church is in the process of discerning that.”

Read it all.

In the space of a week, Mary Glasspool has gone from being an obscure priest in Baltimore to the emblem of a growing international tempest over gay bishops in the Episcopal Church.

The lesbian priest with salt-and-pepper hair — one of two newly elected suffragan, or assistant, bishops in Los Angeles — has become a potent symbol of hope for gays in the national church but a portent of doom for traditionalists worried about their denomination unraveling.

Ask Glasspool, 55, about her central role in the turbulence that has drawn the disapproving eye of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, and she offers a lament: The struggle for gay rights in the church has never been her primary mission, she says, even as she speaks proudly of her 22-year relationship with her partner, social worker Becki Sander.

Read it all.

So where does the Anglican Communion go from here? The Archbishop of Canterbury’s relatively mild reaction to Mary Glasspool’s election is a recognition that this appointment could still be halted if the bishops and dioceses of The Episcopal Church fail to confirm her election. However, it remains a highly unlikely prospect.

The problem that the Archbishop of Canterbury faces is that the Anglican Communion will continue to fragment. The Covenant which he believes is a centre of unity around which the vast majority of provinces can coalesce is not even yet in its final form. Such is the polarisation of the Church of England, as a result of the Anglican Communion crisis, that there is now no guarantee that it can pass in the General Synod let alone in other more liberal western provinces.

It seems likely that any Anglican future worth having will be radically different from the current shape of things. The so-called instruments and international meetings will become largely a thing of the past, replaced by networks, regional conferences and some tangential relationships to the Canterbury primate. It is a fragmented and difficult future, but one preferable to a constant state of hysteria and schism.

Read it all.

Guests:

Rt. Rev J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, Suffragan bisop-elect, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, Suffragan bishop-elect, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Listen to it all.

There has been new controversy across the worldwide Anglican Communion since the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected Rev. Mary Glasspool, a lesbian, as assistant bishop. If her election is confirmed by a majority of dioceses within the Episcopal Church, she would become the second openly gay bishop in the denomination, which has been wracked with division over homosexuality. The Episcopal Church is the US branch of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. In July 2009, the Episcopal General Convention overwhelmingly approved a measure affirming that gays and lesbians are eligible to become bishops.

After the vote, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton asked Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno how he would explain the vote to Anglicans around the world who oppose gay bishops, and what message he hoped it would send to gays and lesbians.

Watch it all.

[Gene] Robinson said. “`It’s not about your experience and credentials, but about whether a gay or lesbian person is fit to be a bishop.”‘

In a majority of the Anglican Communion, the answer is a resounding no. Several times since Robinson’s election, Anglican leaders, including Williams, have asked Episcopalians to “exercise restraint” by not consecrating any more gay bishops. Williams reiterated that request on Sunday in his strongest language to date.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to me to have been pushed over the tipping point,” said David Steinmetz, a professor Christian history at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C. “That’s very hard to say about him; he’s such a gentle man. On the other hand, they really have thumbed their collective noses at him.”

[Mary] Glasspool, though, said the Episcopal Church held a moratorium on gay bishops from 2006-2009, and that’s long enough.

“We have waited, we have held back,” Glasspool said. “And now we need to get on with the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, and proclaim who we are: an open and inclusive church.”

Read it all.