The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, told the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council June 18 that when Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Glasspool was ordained as the church’s second openly gay, partnered bishop, the church ought to have known that it would face sanctions.
However, he said that in the recent removal of Episcopal Church members from some Anglican Communion ecumenical dialogues “the aim has not been to get at the Episcopal Church, but to find room for others to remain as well as enabling as full a participation as possible for the Episcopal Church within the communion.”
Kearon claimed that the communion’s ecumenical dialogues “are at the point of collapse” and said that the last meeting of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, of which Jefferts Schori is an elected member, “was probably the worst meeting I have experienced.”
“The viability of our meetings are at stake,” he added.
The Episcopal Church never expects any consequences for its actions….
You know, when I read this headline, I thought – “Good, they are finally going to enforce the call to a moratorium on litigation.” I should have realized that that call was also meaningless….
No. 2, Would not a moratorium on litigation also include a moratorium on departing parishioners asserting possession and ownership of the churches? Would not there be a huge problem under adverse possession principles in most states if those who departed were allowed to possess unchallenged the premises of previously Episcopal properties? Of course in some locations like Virginia, the litigation started when the departees sought to claim title in the courts. Again, failure to respond would have conceded the point irrevocably. It’s unrealistic to think that any responsible Diocese or bishop could sit still in that situation.
Having said that, the Glasspool consecration richly merits the reaction from Canterbury. I certainly have no problem with these relatively restrained actions by the Archbishop.