Here We Go Again, Again.

So here we go again, again. The liberal Episcopal Church is about to split the Anglican Communion. Again. We are sacrificing Unity for a bastardization of the Truth. Again. We are failing to acknowledge the Authority of Scripture and the Importance of Marriage. Again.


The Los Angeles Diocese’s election of Mary Glasspool has sent all the pundits rushing to their various soapboxes. But the question now before the Episcopal Church is not who is right and who is wrong, but whether this election is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s election, as the election of Diane Jardine Bruce and Morris Thompson, all elected the same day, will have to be confirmed by the other dioceses before she is ordained bishop. 


Standing committees and diocesan bishops now have to discern whether Mary is called by God to this position. The last General Convention did not set aside Resolution BO39 from 2006, which requested them to exercise constraint in confirming candidates whose manner of life might be a challenge to the wider church. Instead it affirmed that God may and does call partnered gay people to all orders of the church and that in such situations we would use the normal discernment process. 


It is unusual for confirmation to be denied to someone who has been properly elected within their own diocese. When Jack Iker was elected in Fort Worth in 1993, conservatives were sure that he would not be confirmed as he opposed the ordination of women, but he was, because dioceses tend to uphold the autonomy of other dioceses provided they are acting in good faith and in line with canon law. More recently there have been contentious elections in South Carolina and Northern Michigan where the elected candidate was not confirmed by a majority of other dioceses.  Father Lawrence was eventually confirmed in South Carolina despite fears that he might lead the diocese out of the Episcopal Church. 


In both instances there were canonical irregularities as well as questions of orthodoxy. The Los Angeles diocese played by the rules, so no canonical issues have been raised. Even so, Mary’s confirmation is by no means a done deal, but it seems likely that she will receive the majority that she needs.  


Why is a lesbian bishop such a huge (negative) deal for some people?


Since the third century, bishops have been seen to be the guardians of the faith. For centuries, bishops have been appointed by other bishops, thus ensuring that the ‘true faith’  is passed safely from one generation to the next.  (The election of bishops is a new innovation.) For those who continue to believe that Christianity is predicated on heterosexuality (because they see the whole sweep of the Bible from Genesis on describing a God who created man and woman to be together as a symbol of the relationship within the Godhead) it is as ontologically impossible for a real bishop to be gay as for a turnip to be ordained. 


For them, ordaining a lesbian to the episcopacy is placing a symbol of not-Truth into the position in the Church responsible for guarding the Truth. This is, they say, equivalent to turning our backs on God, on scripture and on truth, not to mention threatening heterosexual marriage which is the very basis of Western-Civilization-As-We-Know-It. 


But Western-Civilization-As-We-Know-It hasn’t been doing such a great job looking after the planet, creating peace and goodwill among humankind let alone feeding orphans and widows and welcoming aliens. If it takes splitting the Anglican Communion (whose unity has always been more in the eye of the beholder than in the lived experience) to help us get real about living the Gospel and working for social justice, then so be it. We are needed to challenge Western Civilization to get on with the real work of bringing all beings into reconciliation with God.


_______

The Rev. Caroline Hall (‘Caro’) is a graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP). She grew up in the Church of England and had a varied career in social work, education and business in England, Scotland and the US before ordination. She is currently pursuing postgraduate work through the University of Leeds, UK.

Caro maintains a blog of her sermons here.

Mary Glasspool on her election

 

Inclusive Church UK writes to the Presiding Bishop and Bishop Jon Bruno

Thank you to Scott Gunn at Seven Whole Days and to Giles Goddard, Chair of Inclusive Church UK for passing along this correspondace. We think you should share and share widely!

Scott writes:

I received this message today from my good friend Giles Goddard, writing as Chair of Inclusive Church. This open letter is addressed to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles. It’s important for Americans to know that not all clergy in the Church of England are monolithic in their resistance to creating a church where all are welcome. Since it’s not yet on the IC website, I have included the entire text of the letter. I’m grateful for this voice from the UK. Please read it and pass it along!

Dear Bishop Katharine and Bishop Jon,

We congratulate you and the people of the Episcopal Church on the electoral process which has led to the election of the Revd Canon Diane Jardine Bruce and the Revd Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool as Suffragan Bishops of the Diocese of Los Angeles. We are aware that the process was carried out with great care and prayer, as will the decisions of Bishops and Standing Committees who consider whether to confirm the elections. We wish the elected candidates all joy in their ministries and assure them of our prayers.

The Anglican and Episcopalian tradition is, at its best, one which celebrates the breadth of human experience and welcomes the many ways in which we, as Christians, try to live out our vocations under God. We are therefore deeply sorry that the reaction from the Church of England to the election of Mary Glasspool has been at best grudging and at worst actively negative.

While it gives us no pleasure to dissociate ourselves from the sentiments expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose wisdom in so many areas we deeply respect, we greatly regret the tone and content of his response, particularly in the context of his failure to make any comment on the seriously oppressive legislation being proposed in Uganda.

We wish you to know that there are a great many within the Church of England who like us are unequivocally supportive of TEC in being open to the election of bishops without regard to gender, race and sexuality. We pray that the Communion at large will grow in confidence and maturity, so that it can learn to celebrate both those things which hold us together and those things over which we disagree. In that context we greatly welcome the Theological Round Table on Human Sexuality recently announced by the Churches in India.

We urge you and your fellow Bishops and diocesan Standing Committees therefore not to be persuaded by responses from outside your province in considering the request to confirm these elections, and urge those who disagree to approach the Episcopal Church with a renewed and reinvigorated sense of trust in the actions of the Holy Spirit. As a Communion we are called to be an example to other Christians and those who have no belief. In a diverse and global world threatened by much, it is time now to move on from these questions which divide us and focus on responding to the huge challenges we face together.

Yours sincerely,
Giles Goddard
Chair, Inclusive Church

Statement from the Episcopal Women's Caucus

The Episcopal Women's Caucus rejoices in the historic election of two women as bishops suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

The Rev'd Canon Diane Bruce and The Rev'd Canon Mary Glasspool were elected in a history-making decision from a field of six excellent candidates.  Bruce was the first woman elected to the episcopacy in the history of the diocese where, just two bishops diocesan ago, women were not able to be ordained to the priesthood.  Glasspool is the first woman in The Episcopal church and Anglican Communion who is able to be honest and open about her sexual orientation.

With these two elections, the stained glass ceiling has not been shattered, but it has received a mighty crack.  We long for the day when all God's children with an authentic vocation to any of the four orders of ministry, tested and affirmed by God's people, will be able to live into God's call regardless of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class or economic status, or physical ability.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

We offer our heartfelt thanks and praise to God and our gratitude to the people of the Diocese of LA. We pray for a swift and uneventful consent process and a joyful service of consecration.