[Diane] Bruce and [Mary] Glasspool will be assistants to [Jon] Bruno, a position known as suffragan. They are the 1,044th and 1,045th bishops ordained in the history of the Episcopal Church, but few previous clerical elections have attracted as much attention.
Although both ordinations broke new ground, it was the selection of Glasspool, who is gay, that attracted worldwide attention and no small amount of consternation among more conservative members of the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part. The head of the church, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, said after Glasspool’s election in March that it was “regrettable” and could threaten the unity of the communion.
She becomes the second gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, following Gene Robinson, who was chosen as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. His selection rocked the church and led to the departure of dozens of its more conservative parishes and four dioceses. In reaction, the church enacted a moratorium on the election of additional gay bishops but overturned that policy at its national convention in Anaheim last summer.
In choosing Glasspool, the Los Angeles Diocese became the first to test the new policy. With some 70,000 members and 147 congregations in six Southern California counties, it is among the largest Episcopal dioceses in the country and is considered among the most liberal.
Jon Bruno is quted as saying, “There are no outcasts”. However, those
persons ejected for objecting to homosexuality must have felt rather
cast out.
I have my doubts about the “only the second gay Bishop”). One would have to think that +Robinson was the FIRST. The words “openly gay” might be more applicable don’t you think?
Also, something about “Openly Partnered” might have garnered the “Only the second” title. Otherwise it makes little sense.
Grandmother in SC
Where the heck is the leader of the Anglican Communion? I know he has practically made himself irrelevant but has he disappeared entirely?
It must have made a great echo, that music and all…I’ve read the capacity of the place is 13,500 and they got 3000 bodies? A WHOPPING 22% of the house! Must’ve been some good TV to keep more Episcopalians home.
Yes, there are outcast and throw aways in the EC..they are Reasserters who are no longer welcome…priests who are no longer allowed to interview at Churches in most Episcopal Dioceses even for those Churches that are Reasserting Churches and laity who are driven out of their Church home.