An Episcopal priest from Maryland has been elected as the new bishop of the Los Angeles diocese. The problem for some, particularly the Anglican leadership in the U.K.? Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool is also a lesbian.
Here're two excerpts:
"A lesbian priest was elected an Episcopal bishop Saturday at the Los Angeles diocese's annual convention in Riverside, putting her on track to become only the second openly lesbian or gay bishop in the centuries-old denomination's history.
The Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, currently an adviser to the bishops of the Diocese of Maryland, was chosen for one of two assistant-bishop vacancies in the Diocese of Los Angeles, which includes San Bernardino County and part of Riverside County.
She is the first openly lesbian or gay bishop chosen since the 2003 election of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of the New Hampshire diocese led dozens of conservative parishes and four dioceses to vote to leave the Episcopal Church. It also provoked condemnation from some of the other churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the 2.1-million-member Episcopal Church is a part."
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"The future of the worldwide Anglian Communion was in jeopardy last night after the Archbishop of Canterbury said that the election of a lesbian bishop in the United States raised "very serious questions".
Dr Rowan Williams added that the choice of Canon Mary Glasspool to be a suffragan bishop in Los Angeles had "important implications". The election of Canon Glasspool, who has lived with the same female partner since 1988, is the second appointment of an openly homosexual bishop in the US Episcopal Church. It confirmed fears among evangelicals in the Anglican Communion of more than 70 million people that crucial votes at last summer's General Convention of the Episcopal Church had in effect ended the moratorium on gay bishops.
Dr Williams said: "The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan 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. The process of selection, however, is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.
"The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold." "
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